April 9, 2025- Cepheid, and Oxford Nanopore Technologies, the company behind a new generation of sequencing-based molecular analysis technologies, announced a strategic collaboration to develop and commercialize a seamless end-to-end workflow that combines Cepheid’s GeneXpert system for pre-sequencing sample and library preparation with Oxford Nanopore’s rapid, information-rich molecular analysis platform.
The two companies have completed a successful proof-of-concept study which demonstrated the feasibility of using Cepheid’s cartridge-based GeneXpert system for sample and library preparation in a workflow with Oxford Nanopore’s sequencing platform. The positive results from the proof-of-concept have paved the way for the strategic collaboration to develop and launch a joint Research Use Only1 (RUO) workflow that will enable customers to leverage rapid, information-rich sequencing in-house for infectious disease analysis, returning results within hours instead of days.
The initial application of the workflow will focus on infectious disease, specifically the profiling of bacterial and fungal pathogens with whole genome sequencing first from culture isolates and eventually directly from positive blood cultures. The collaboration has the potential to expand from this initial application into additional infectious disease use cases, other areas such as cancer and human genetics, and eventually regulatory approved clinical diagnostics.