The GridION is Oxford Nanopore’s proprietary flow cell technology. Within each flow cell are eight hundred individual protein Nanopores embedded within a synthetic membrane. Each of these Nanopores acts as an individual channel for DNA or RNA to migrate through. During Nanopore sequencing, DNA or RNA is combined with a processive enzyme that binds to an individual nanopore. As an analyte migrates through a pore, it creates a unique electrical disruption. This electrical disruption is subsequently interpreted in real-time into a series of individual bases at a sequencing speed of 450 bases per second for DNA, and 70bps for RNA when using direct RNA sequencing chemistry.
