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Oxford Nanopore Technologies plc (LSE: ONT) ("Oxford Nanopore”), the company delivering a new generation of nanopore-based molecular sensing technology, was showcased in Apple Inc.’s global product launch on Monday. Apple positioned Oxford Nanopore’s DNA/RNA sequencing technology as a companion platform that can run on Apple devices equipped with its new M3 silicon chips, supporting broad access to biological insights in scientific research, health, agriculture and industry.

In a blog post, Apple said that its latest M3 silicon chip is now even faster and more powerful to support improved nanopore sequencing, seamlessly integrating with Oxford Nanopore’s onboard MinKNOW software to run and analyse DNA/RNA reads from the small-format Oxford Nanopore sequencing devices, the MinION and PromethION 2 Solo. Both products rely on external computing power to process the electrical signals from the nanopore platform.

The upgrade means that anyone with an M3-enabled Apple product, including the Macbook Pro™ and iMac™, will be able to access the same high-definition sequencing data with the MinION or P2 Solo alongside their Apple device. This further enhances the experience over M1 or M2 users and supports future improvements in nanopore sequencing data outputs. The sequencing data is then turned into usable insight through a range of software applications. Oxford Nanopore’s higher-output devices that include onboard computing, including the GridION and PromethION 24 and 48, will continue to be powered by NVIDIA’s A-series towers.

The new M3 chips’ compute capacity can process thousands of inputs at once and in real time – similar to processing 6,000 conversations with Siri simultaneously. Pairing the M3 chip-enabled products with Oxford Nanopore’s affordable and accessible MinION and P2 Solo sequencing devices has the potential to enable more global communities to access faster, richer biological data, powered by the latest machine learning technology.

Gordon Sanghera, CEO of Oxford Nanopore, commented: “We are incredibly proud to be showcased by Apple as a complementary technology that can seamlessly integrate with Apple’s new silicon chips, which is even faster and more powerful to support real-time nanopore DNA/RNA sequencing. Powered by Apple's M3 silicon chips, we are one step closer to achieving our vision of enabling the analysis of anything by anyone, anywhere by making it possible for more scientists around the world to access real-time, data rich DNA/RNA insights with only a MinION or P2 Solo and an iMac or Macbook Pro.”

Read more from Gordon here.

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