Researchers from Cornell-licensed startup Inso Biosciences and the University of Washington have developed a technology for isolating high-molecular-weight DNA and preparing libraries for nanopore sequencing directly from samples in a single microfluidic cartridge.
Described in a MedRxiv preprint last month, the method uses Inso’s yet-to-be commercialized microfluidic micropillar platform to generate sequencing-ready libraries from various sample types in as little as 30 minutes with input amounts as low as a single drop of blood.
While the proof-of-concept study demonstrates the platform’s potential to enable rapid nanopore sequencing in clinical and point-of-care settings, the technology’s real-world performance still remains to be shown.
Originally invented and developed by professor emeritus Harold Craighead’s group at Cornell University, the technology isolates and purifies high-molecular-weight DNA by entangling the molecules onto micropillars in a microfluidic channel.
“We think about it like hair on a comb,” said Inso Cofounder and CEO Harvey Tian, a coauthor of the preprint study. Previously a graduate student in Craighead’s lab, Tian coinvented the technology with Adam Bisogni, another company cofounder and its CSO. Inso exclusively licensed the technology from Cornell and raised $2.2 million in pre-seed financing in 2022 to commercialize the platform.
