Ip Share Discussion Threads

[bamboo2] 17/6/2021 10:22

Dividends received today.

[bamboo2] 17/6/2021 10:21

FOR RELEASE ON 17 June 2021

IP Group plc - Portfolio company Apollo Therapeutics raises $145m

IP Group plc (LSE: IPO) ("IP Group" or "the Group"), the developer of intellectual property-based businesses, notes that Apollo Therapeutics ("Apollo" or "the Company"), an IP Group portfolio company rapidly advancing potentially transformative treatments based on breakthrough discoveries, has completed a $145 million (GBP103 million*) financing.

Apollo, which was set up by three world-leading UK universities and three global pharmaceutical and healthcare companies, will use the funds to advance its pipeline into development, expand its operations including the establishment of a presence in the Boston, MA area and on new collaborations globally.

Apollo was originally established in late 2015 as a unique joint venture of AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Johnson & Johnson, and the technology transfer offices of three leading academic institutions - University of Cambridge, University College London and Imperial College London. IP Group retains a minority stake in the new company, acquired as a result of its acquisition of Touchstone Innovations.

Following completion of the financing, IP Group has an undiluted beneficial holding in Apollo of approximately 2%, valued at GBP3.5 million.

The financing was led by Patient Square Capital, which will take a controlling position in the business, with participation from additional investors including Rock Springs Capital, Reimagined Ventures and UCL Technology Fund.

[bamboo2] 17/6/2021 07:33

New electrolyser company Hysata launches, putting $2/kg green hydrogen within reach
Jun 16, 2021


$5 million seed round led by IP Group

Hysata, a company spun out of the University of Wollongong (UOW) to commercialise breakthrough Australian hydrogen electrolyser technology, officially opened its doors today with $5 million in funding led by IP Group, with support from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC).

Hysata is developing a new hydrogen electrolyser that has the potential to significantly shift the economics of green hydrogen production, bringing the Australian Government’s $2/kg target within reach.

Electrolysers, which use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, are the key technology for producing green hydrogen.

The Hysata electrolyser is based on breakthrough Australian technology developed by a team from the UOW headquartered ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES), led by chemical catalysis and characterisation expert Professor Gerry Swiegers.

Professor Swiegers has an outstanding track record in commercialisation, as the inventor of over 50 patent families and the founder of six start-ups, which have received an estimated $100 million in investment.

The Hysata technology has been proven at lab-scale and the company, which has strong scientific, engineering and commercialisation experience, is now focused on developing and commercialising a full-scale system. Hysata is based at UOW’s Australian Institute for Innovative Materials.

Professor Swiegers said: “Inexpensive green hydrogen is needed for decarbonisation of multiple industries to put us on a path to net zero by 2050. Years of work from a great team at the University of Wollongong, along with great facilities and government funding are coming to fruition in a company that has the potential to have global impact. It’s great to be working with IP Group — they have global reach and deep experience commercialising university research.”

Paul Barrett, Head of Physical Sciences at IP Group Australia and Hysata Interim CEO said: “Hysata represents a once in a lifetime opportunity to reshape an industry. I’m delighted to be working with Professor Swiegers and the team at the University of Wollongong to bring this technology to market. This will have an impact both economically and environmentally on our path to net zero.”

Michael Molinari, IP Group Australia Managing Director said: “We have been looking globally for new technology that can unlock the trillion-dollar opportunity in hydrogen. The Hysata technology is truly world-leading, and we’re very excited to help the team in their mission to make green hydrogen a reality for Australia and the world. This company is a great example of the tremendous economic opportunities that can be unlocked by the research being done at our universities.”

ACES Director Professor Gordon Wallace said: “These exciting developments are based on significant fundamental research that is taken from the translational pathway by a team with technical and commercial skills fully integrated. We, at ACES, are fully committed to such ventures.”

Professor Jennifer L Martin, UOW Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research & Innovation), said: “The innovative technology developed by Professor Swiegers and his team exemplifies our ambition to deliver fundamental research that leads to impactful change. UOW’s research and innovation strategy is focused on creating knowledge for a better world, underpinned by our prioritisation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which include the goals of affordable and clean energy, and climate change mitigation.

Green hydrogen is widely acknowledged to be a crucial part of reaching net zero emissions globally, with the potential to meet up to 20% of energy demand in a net zero global economy. Green hydrogen enables deep decarbonisation of hard-to-abate sectors, with potential applications including steel, heavy transport, shipping, aviation, chemicals, seasonal storage in the electricity sector, and gas grids.

It also presents an enormous economic opportunity, with global demand of trillions of dollars expected by 2050. Hydrogen and derivatives like ammonia represent a multi-billion-dollar export opportunity for Australia, due to its excellent renewable energy resources, ample land and established status as a leading energy exporter.

[p1nkfish] 17/6/2021 06:53

Could be very good news for the UK and IPO might be able to put some money to work in new supply chain areas needing funding. Someone will crack Fusion and thre result will be $$$.

"VANCOUVER, Canada and LONDON, UK, June 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (BST) -- The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and General Fusion have announced an agreement under which General Fusion will build and operate its Fusion Demonstration Plant (FDP) at UKAEA's Culham Campus. General Fusion will enter into a long-term lease with UKAEA following construction of a new facility at Culham to host the FDP. The FDP will demonstrate General Fusion's proprietary Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) technology, paving the way for the company’s subsequent commercial pilot plant. General Fusion will benefit from the cluster of fusion supply chain activities in the UK, centered on UKAEA's globally recognized expertise and presence in the field."

One investor is Bezos via his Bezos Expeditions fund.

[bamboo2] 16/6/2021 09:00

eeza, let's hope so. Chart showing a possible turn today.

Oxehealth is another in the stable quietly getting on with strong organic growth.

[eeza] 15/6/2021 21:08

Looks to be another winner in the IPO stable.

[bamboo2] 15/6/2021 20:55

Garrison Technology Ltd - Garrison Technology Demonstrates Resilience and Scale With Strong Full-year Growth
15 Jun 2021

Garrison Technology, a UK scale-up delivering ultra-secure web isolation and cross domain solutions to commercial and government organisations in the UK, North America and other regions, delivered impressive growth of over 150% in sales between April 2020 and May 2021 despite a year of COVID disruption. Continued strong demand from Garrison’s government customers (including the UK Government and US Federal Government) and significant expansion with key commercial accounts including UK retail bank Lloyds Banking Group contributed to revenues in excess of $10 million.

With its Garrison SAVI®, Garrison SACS® and Garrison ULTRA® technologies that make it safe to click on even the most dangerous links, Garrison is pioneering a new technological paradigm in the field of cyber security – an approach known as hardsec. It is this technology that the company is leveraging to build the world’s first hardsec cloud service, delivering technology secure enough for sensitive government agencies but scalable and cost-effective enough for mainstream commercial organisations.

CEO David Garfield said of the company’s success in the last 12 months: “Our customers look to us to help them operate effectively in an increasingly unsafe cyber world and I am delighted by their continued confidence in us. Our continuing technology investments will allow us to help more customers as we make our web isolation technology available through our uniquely secure cloud offering.”

Backed by investors Dawn Capital, IP Group, BGF and NM Capital, Garrison has raised over $50M in funding to date and expects continued strong growth in coming years in both government and commercial markets around the world given the ever-more-critical need to protect against web-borne threats such as phishing and ransomware.

“What’s so distinctive and good about Garrison is that the security of its technology has been independently verified to the point where it is trusted by highly sensitive government organisations around the world. This is all too rare in cyber security” said Professor Ciaran Martin, former CEO of the UK National Cyber Security Centre and a member of Garrison’s advisory board.

“Garrison̵7;s real achievement however is delivering this level of security together with scalability, usability and pricing that’s proving successful with mainstream commercial enterprises.”

About Garrison:
Garrison was founded in 2014 by David Garfield and Henry Harrison, who set out on a mission to make the cybersecurity market more secure. With a wealth of experience from previous cyber businesses, they designed a threat elimination product that eradicates the largest cyber risk to organisations and governments worldwide, that of web-borne threats such as malware, phishing attacks and drive-by downloads. Today Garrison’s hardsec technology is enabling governments and securing commercial organisations across many geographies and sectors.

For more information about Garrison’s unique approach and solutions, please visit www.garrison.com.

[bamboo2] 13/6/2021 22:01

The recording of the recent hydrogen webinar is now online.

‘Clean’ hydrogen is essential to achieving net zero. With costs falling and energy from hydrogen needed for high emitting industrial and transport sectors, has its time come? IP Group’s Cleantech Partners, Rob Trezona and Jamie Vollbracht, present analysis by the Energy Transitions Commission, which details the role of hydrogen in the energy transition and provides a roadmap to a global hydrogen economy. The Cleantech team has been investing in hydrogen for 9 years, across the complete value chain, and leaders from three portfolio companies progressing distinctive technologies in the sector also present:
• Professor Nigel Brandon, Head of Engineering at Imperial College, Ceres Co-founder and Co-founder of RFC Power
• Dr Tom Mason, CEO Bramble Energy
• Dr Mark Selby, CTO of IP Group alumnus Ceres Power

[bamboo2] 13/6/2021 21:57

wba, yes, the lift in revenue is being driven by increases in orders for the existing tech. Newer products such as the recently announced fully integrated Minion Mk1C, along with its SAAS element and consumables, will further push increases in turnover.

The need for Covid variant surveillance using concurrent long and short genetic reads should help keep the co in the forefront of this market. Illumina and Pacbio cannot offer the level of functionality obtained from ONT.


Real-time SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic and variants tracking over multiple candidates using nanopore DNA sequencing.

[wba1] 11/6/2021 20:28

Interesting news at hxxps://bidstats.uk/tenders/?q=whole+genome#752680959-752550307-28. Oxford Nanopore received a new £2m contract from Genomics England (a Dept of Health company)which was announced yesterday and which follows a similar £2m contract announced in March. A search on the site also identified a £3.7m contract for a mobile lab that they won in January plus multiple smaller contracts. These seem like big wins in the context of previous reported revenue numbers and suggest 2021 reported revenue will see a huge increase.

[bamboo2] 11/6/2021 07:48

wba, I watched the presentation, but had to work on something else at the same time, so did not make any notes. Management are going to consider uploading the presentation to the website. The video recording is also available to shareholders on request.

There didn't seem to be anything new in the section on Garrison Tech. It does seem very well connected in Govt bodies. I found this yesterday...

LONDON & MCLEAN, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Garrison Technology today announced that David Wallick, a renowned federal government Cross Domain Solutions (CDS) expert, has joined the company’s U.S. team. He will serve as a subject matter expert on all technical aspects of Garrison’s unique and innovative ultra-secure solutions and their deployment, providing pre-sales support for the commercial and government markets in North America...

...“I am thrilled to join the Garrison team and use my experience within the U.S. Federal Government to expand the company’s growth in government markets and further deploy Garrison’s game-changing, hardsec cross domain solution to customers,” said David Wallick, Garrison Technology. “Garrison is making great strides in the CDS space and its hardware-based solution is effectively halting attacks aimed at our nation’s most sensitive and important data.”

“We are continuing to revolutionize cybersecurity solutions for classified and unclassified government entities by delivering hardsec-based web isolation and cross domain solutions,” said David Garfield, CEO, Garrison Technology. “We are pleased to add David Wallick to our team who has worked inside of government for the past two decades and can provide technical and practical counsel to our customers. He will be an enormous asset to our customers as they turn to us to help protect their highly sensitive assets.”

Garrison is leading the way for hardware-based isolation solutions in applications such as secure browsing and cross-domain access. Garrison’s isolation solutions, designed to enable cross network collaboration, offer ultra-secure isolation, guaranteed user experience and performance at scale.

[wba1] 10/6/2021 11:32

bamboo2

I missed the presentation. What was the Garrison comment? I have done a fairly deep dive into publicly available info on Garrison, which is what raised my interest, but it is pretty limited. It would be very interesting to know what the purchase price was for Sucuri a while back - but it was kept private.

As a minor aside I noticed the announcement yesterday by the Rockefeller Foundation about their initiative (with the WHO) to push genomic sequencing worldwide as a tool in the pandemic. They named 20 partners, including Oxford N. Perhaps the most interesting bit was that although Oxford (and Illumina) were working with them there is no mention of Pacific Bio. Once more it should help Oxford's profile with US investors for the float.

[bamboo2] 09/6/2021 19:42

wba, did you see the presentation this morning?

There was some basic info about Garrison. I also found the info on Istesso's arthritis damage repair drug got my attention.

It's a case of searching the internet. Post anything interesting you find.

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Re the buyback, while the share price is below NAV, will they use the latest published NAV as a guide, or a more recent running total of NAV?

Officially it is approx 125 as of 31/12/2020. My running total is approx 140.

[wba1] 09/6/2021 14:14

I have had a slightly closer look at the portfolio and retain an interest in seeing how IP value the likes of Artios and Featurespace come the next valuation in August. However, one company that seemed interesting, but which gets little mention is Garrison Technology and I wondered if anyone has any knowledge of or views on this company. It seems to have a solid revenue/customer base with significant contracts with the UK government (I found one payment of >£200k from the FCDO in May). And it should be well positioned to get other work in the public sector, both in the UK and elsewhere, given its principals are ex-GCHQ. I am not sure if the principals connections make it less open to being taken out (for security reasons). Any thoughts on this company, its value and its future?

[bamboo2] 09/6/2021 07:40

Good news, particularly about the buyback.

Webinar at 10.15am today. These are normally worthwhile, with a live Q&A. If you want to submit a question during this time, it is worth preparing in advance what you want to say in another text editor, then paste it to Zoom's small text box.

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IP Group plc - AGM statement

IP Group plc (LSE: IPO) ("IP Group" or "the Company" or "the Group"), the developer of intellectual property-based businesses, issues the following statement ahead of its Annual General Meeting, which is a closed meeting taking place at 10am today and which will be followed by a virtual event for shareholders at 10.15am .

All shareholders are invited to join the virtual event at 10.15am while we politely remind shareholders that the 2021 AGM is a closed meeting with the minimum attendance required to form a quorum (being two shareholders). No other shareholders will be permitted to physically attend the meeting in accordance with the UK Government's current COVID-19 guidelines and to safeguard shareholders, employees and the wider community.

No material new information will be released by the Company during the virtual event. This statement provides an update on the Group's progress for the period since 31 December 2020.

Business and operational update

During the year to date, IP Group has seen a continuation of the positive progress made by many of its portfolio companies during 2020. A summary of significant portfolio events is set out below.

The Group remains well financed and, as at 31 May 2021, had gross cash and deposits of GBP228.7 million (FY20: GBP270.3 million) and net cash (gross cash and deposits less EIB debt) of GBP169.1 million (FY20: GBP203.0 million)

Shareholder returns and inaugural dividend

As described in the 2020 full year results release, the Board considers that IP Group shareholder returns will continue to be driven primarily by long-term capital appreciation. The Board also considers that the business model has reached a sufficient stage of maturity that a modest but growing dividend should form a small part of the overall shareholder value proposition. Consistent with this approach, and assuming approval of the relevant resolutions at the Group's AGM later today, the Group will pay its inaugural dividend of one pence per ordinary share on 16(th) June. GBP10.1 million of the dividend will be settled in cash and GBP0.5m via the issue of new ordinary shares under the Group's scrip programme.

The Board also anticipates receiving shareholder approval to renew the authority to purchase up to 10% of the ordinary shares in issue from the date of grant of the authority to the date of the Annual General Meeting in 2022. Such purchases will only be made at a discount to the prevailing Hard NAV per share. Any decision to repurchase shares would be undertaken in light of other potential capital investment opportunities for the benefit of stakeholders and remains subject to regular review.

Portfolio update

The Group's portfolio includes holdings in 40 'focus' companies across life sciences, deeptech and cleantech, representing over 84% of the portfolio value at 31 December 2020. In the year to date, the Group has invested over GBP50 million in 32 portfolio companies and made cash realisations of GBP16 million. The Directors anticipate that cash realisations in the first half of the year will exceed GBP80 million following the completion of certain portfolio transactions described below.

Management is currently undertaking its regular fair value assessment exercise as part of its half-yearly results processes and looks forward to updating shareholders in August.

Significant developments in the Group's portfolio since 31 December 2020 include:

-- NeoGenomics, Inc agreed to acquire Inivata Ltd, a leader in liquid biopsy, resulting in IP Group receiving approximately GBP65 million* ($91 million) in cash and an anticipated increase in the Group's net asset value of approximately GBP28 million.

-- Waveoptics Ltd was sold to Snap Inc, in one of Europe's largest deeptech exits, as announced on 17 May. Following completion, IP Group has recorded a fair value increase of approximately GBP20 million.

-- Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd raised GBP202 million in new capital including GBP125 million from new investors Temasek, Wellington Management, M&G Investments and Nikon with existing shareholders investing GBP77 million. Following completion of the round, IP Group has a 14.5% undiluted beneficial stake in Oxford Nanopore, valued at GBP359 million. Oxford Nanopore announced in March that it had started the process of preparing for a potential Initial Public Offering.

-- Kuur Therapeutics Ltd was acquired by Athenex, Inc. for a total potential consideration of $185 million with IP Group eligible to receive GBP30 million* ($42 million) in Athenex stock and up to a further GBP51 million* ($72 million) in milestone payments in cash or stock. The Directors anticipate that the transaction will result in an increase in the Group's net asset value of approximately GBP26 million*.

-- Centessa Pharmaceuticals plc announced that its Nasdaq IPO had closed on 2 June 2021 and its American Depositary Shares were now trading under the symbol 'CNTA'. IP Group had previously announced that portfolio company Apcintex Ltd had been acquired by Centessa. Based on the IPO price of $20 per share, the value of the Group's 2.8% holding in Centessa was GBP36 million* ($51 million) , resulting in an increase in the Group's net asset value of GBP15 million. Centessa noted that gross proceeds from the offering totalled $379.5 million.

-- Diurnal Group plc announced on May 28 that the European Commission (EC) had approved the marketing authorisation for Efmody(R) (hydrocortisone modified-release hard capsules, development name Chronocort(R) ) as treatment of adult and adolescent patients (12 years and older) with the rare condition congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). This decision by the EC follows the positive opinion issued by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in March 2021. First commercial launch is anticipated in Q3 2021.

-- Pulmocide Ltd completed a $92 million Series C financing. Following completion and the investment of the first tranche of GBP2.2 million, IP Group will have a 14.4% undiluted beneficial stake in Pulmocide, which will be valued at GBP8.0 million.

[eeza] 09/6/2021 07:24

IPO reported to have taken part in ITX funding at 12.00p. (ITX bb)

[masurenguy] 09/6/2021 07:07

Good update and dividend inaugurated !

Business and operational update

During the year to date, IP Group has seen a continuation of the positive progress made by many of its portfolio companies during 2020. The Group remains well financed and, as at 31 May 2021, had gross cash and deposits of £228.7 million (FY20: £270.3 million) and net cash (gross cash and deposits less EIB debt) of £169.1 million (FY20: £203.0 million)

Shareholder returns and inaugural dividend

As described in the 2020 full year results release, the Board considers that IP Group shareholder returns will continue to be driven primarily by long-term capital appreciation. The Board also considers that the business model has reached a sufficient stage of maturity that a modest but growing dividend should form a small part of the overall shareholder value proposition. Consistent with this approach, and assuming approval of the relevant resolutions at the Group's AGM later today, the Group will pay its inaugural dividend of one pence per ordinary share on 16(th) June. GBP10.1 million of the dividend will be settled in cash and GBP0.5m via the issue of new ordinary shares under the Group's scrip programme.

The Board also anticipates receiving shareholder approval to renew the authority to purchase up to 10% of the ordinary shares in issue from the date of grant of the authority to the date of the Annual General Meeting in 2022. Such purchases will only be made at a discount to the prevailing Hard NAV per share. Any decision to repurchase shares would be undertaken in light of other potential capital investment opportunities for the benefit of stakeholders and remains subject to regular review.

[bamboo2] 07/6/2021 07:30

FOR RELEASE ON 07 June 2021

IP Group plc - Portfolio company Iksuda Therapeutics completes $42m (GBP29.6m*) Series A financing round

IP Group plc (LSE: IPO) ("IP Group" or "the Group"), the developer of intellectual property-based businesses, notes that portfolio company Iksuda Therapeutics Ltd ("Iksuda" or "the Company") has completed a $42 million Series A financing round, led by Korea-based Mirae Asset Capital and its subsidiaries, with Celltrion Inc. ("Celltrion") and Premier Partners.

The funding will support the advancement of Iksuda's lead Antibody Drug Conjugate ("ADC") assets and expansion of its payload and conjugation platform technologies, enabling progression of its lead pre-clinical candidate, IKS03 - a best-in-class CD19-targeted ADC candidate for B-cell cancers, to first-in-human phase 1 clinical trials. The funding will also be used to accelerate the Company's earlier-stage programmes, including IKS04 and IKS012, to IND filing.

Iksuda's ADC programmes target tumours that currently have limited treatment options and high relapse rates. The Company's drug development pipeline is centred on the improved safety and efficacy conferred by tumour activated, prodrug payloads in combination with stable conjugation technologies, including its proprietary novel PermaLink(R) platform. Iksuda's research-stage pipeline utilizes its proprietary Protein Alkylating (ProAlk) tumour-activated payload platform, recently licensed from Göttingen University. The novel mode of action for the ProAlk tuneable payload series differs from the field's primary focus of intra- or DNA inter-strand cross-linking, conferring benefits against drug and tumour resistance mechanisms, and enabling the development of more powerful, more tolerable ADCs.

Following completion, IP Group will have a 19.4% undiluted beneficial stake in Iksuda, which the Directors anticipate will be valued at GBP8.3 million, representing a net unrealised fair value gain to the Group of approximately GBP5.3 million. IP Group has agreed to sell $5 million (GBP3.5 million*) worth of shares as part of the transaction to facilitate the introduction of Celltrion as a strategic partner to Iksuda and secure long-term financial backing for the company's pipeline. The funding round and the sale of shares by IP Group will be tranched and subject to the achievement of certain milestones.

[bamboo2] 04/6/2021 08:47

My chart showing a possible low or valley turn today.

We need an eod close above historical resistance at approx 125 to confirm a target around 135.4

This will require a step up in volume which recently has been in decline.

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AGM update and shareholder Q&A's Wednesday 9/6/2021

IP Group plc confirms the details for its virtual shareholder event which will follow its closed 2021 AGM. To ensure that shareholders continue to have the opportunity to engage with and ask questions of the Board, the virtual shareholder event will be held at 10.15am on Wednesday 09 June.

The arrangements for the virtual shareholder event are as follows:

- The event will be led by Sir Douglas Flint, Chairman of IP Group, and Alan Aubrey, CEO.

- The event will cover off pre-submitted questions and there will also be an opportunity to pose written questions during the event.

- Shareholders who wish to pre-submit questions should do so by email ideally at least 48 hours prior to the event to [e-mail].

- Shareholders who wish to attend should register via the following link:



- After registering, shareholders will receive confirmation containing information about joining the webinar.

[bamboo2] 04/6/2021 06:53

Posting in full, now report is a week old.

Several very important points, and the article is a bit more accessible than the original info direct from the co.



NEW YORK – Oxford Nanopore Technologies has developed a new sequencing chemistry where a substantial fraction of reads has an error rate of less than 1 percent, or a Q20 quality score.

Released to a small group of development labs earlier this year, the Q20+ chemistry offers a modal raw read accuracy of 99.3 percent, according to the firm. The kit employs a refined motor enzyme and is used with R10 flow cells and the Bonito basecaller.

"It's a huge step forward," said Rasmus Kirkegaard, a researcher at the University of Vienna who has used the kits as part of the developer release to sequence a reference mock bacterial community sample from Zymo Research. "You can get basically reference-quality genomes from nanopore data only," he said.

The boost in accuracy not only improves the actual assemblies but also user trust in the results. "Even with the old data, we got high-quality consensus sequences, but people tended to distrust them," he said. "You would still need to polish them with Illumina. It will be interesting when people demonstrate you don't need to do that anymore."

In a blog post, Oxford Nanopore said it is planning to release the kits to early-access partners "in the coming weeks." Q20+ is one of several improvements the company has made to its long-read sequencing platform. The newest Bonito basecaller, updated in late 2020, includes a "super accuracy" mode that provides 98.3 percent raw read accuracy. Also, another new chemistry, called "Duplex," is an extension of Q20+ which enables sequencing of both the template and complement strand of DNA in succession.

A new PromethIon instrument, planned for release sometime in 2022, would be the size of a shoe box and run up to two flow cells at a time. A $60,000 "starter pack" would include 48 flow cells.

The firm also clarified that it is releasing new products in phases that differ with regard to where they are in the development cycle: "developer release," where new concepts are tried out; "early access," where products are subject to immediate change; "released," for fully available products that are still evolving; and "fully released." Products in different phases come with different warranties and levels of technical support.

The new chemistry will help as Oxford Nanopore plays catch-up in the market for highly accurate sequencing. "Five years ago, the best reads from a consensus of two strands had an error rate of 15 percent," Kirkegaard noted, and even two years ago, the highest basecalling accuracy available with nanopore sequencing was 96 percent. Illumina has long been the gold standard for accuracy in sequencing, but recently, Pacific Biosciences reached 99.9 percent accuracy for long reads with its HiFi sequencing protocol, which distills reads higher than Q20 from its Sequel IIe instrument. Reads can also be selected based on Q score on the Oxford Nanopore platform.

Like Oxford Nanopore's in-house team, Kirkegaard was able to get a modal accuracy greater than 99 percent. He posted data from his experiments using the PromethIon P24 instrument to GitHub, noting that the best chromosome contig he was able to obtain had an indel rate of 0.74/100 kbp and a mismatch rate of 0.37/100 kbp, which he called "pretty mind-blowing for a nanopore-only assembly."

According to Kirkegaard, data from Q20+ runs were good enough for an analysis to suggest that there was nothing to be gained from polishing an assembly made from such reads with Illumina reads. "To actually assemble genomes, we'd need longer reads than what was in the sample," he said, which were around 7 kb. "But that's a problem with the sample, not the sequencer."

An alpha version of Duplex will be part of the Q20+ early access program, an Oxford Nanopore spokesperson said. Some duplex reads are very close to reaching Q30 accuracy — 99.9 percent, or error rates of less than 1 in 1,000. In data posted to Twitter May 21, Kirkegaard showed three duplex reads greater than 15 kbp that had accuracies of 99.7, 99.8, and 99.8 percent, respectively. However, these duplex pairs accounted for fewer than 2 percent of reads, he said.

The Q20+ chemistry is named so because Oxford Nanopore expects it could be even more accurate in the future. "With further iterations on software, it will improve more," Clive Brown, chief technology officer at Oxford Nanopore, said in a presentation at the firm's virtual user group meeting last week

[bamboo2] 28/5/2021 19:03

eeza, ONT has completed it's London Calling Conference reviews this week, so I think over the next few weeks management attention will be focussed on new product launches and the flotation.

My chart suggesting possible news for IPO on Tuesday 1/6/2021, but I think we will have to wait until after the IPO AGM update, for the date of the ONT flotation.

ps. I wonder if management have ever regretted calling the co IPGroup, and having the ticker IPO?

pps. I have emailed the co re the problems with nominee accounts being unable to access the scrip option, and suggested they consider buying back shares to put in treasury, for future use as scrip shares, rather than diluting all with new shares. If others do the same, the message is more likely to be heard.

[eeza] 28/5/2021 17:50

Shaping up to be a very exciting IPO.

[bamboo2] 28/5/2021 17:18

News from ONT

The first complete sequence of a human genome
Thu 27th May 2021

T2T Consortium publish the first complete sequence of a human genome, along with epigenetic patterns.

The human genome project was launched in 1990, and more than 30 years later, it is still not complete. Today, a team of researchers that make up the T2T Consortium released a paper describing the first complete human genome, addressing the gaps in a haploid human genome, and using nanopore sequencing to address these gaps.

The current human reference genome contains 151 Mbp of unknown sequence throughout the genome, primarily highly-repetitive regions that have been impossible to resolve with traditional sequencing technology. In recent years, researchers have been using nanopore technology to overcome some of these challenges, uncovering new information about the genetics of human health and disease.

This week, a significant milestone has been reached in the race for the complete assembly of a human genome. A team of scientists have published a new reference genome (T2T-CHM13), which includes five entirely new chromosome arms and is the single largest addition of new content to the human genome in the past 20 years.

The authors comment: “The resulting T2T-CHM13 reference assembly removes a 20-year-old barrier that has hidden 8% of the genome from sequence-based analysis, including all centromeric regions and the entire short arms of five human chromosomes.”

This 8% of the genome has not been overlooked due to its lack of importance, but rather due to technological limitations. High accuracy, and ultra-long read sequencing has finally removed this technological barrier, enabling comprehensive studies of genomic variation across the entire human genome. Nanopore technology is the only sequencing technology able to span some of the most complex regions of the human genome, which to date have been unresolved. “The complete, telomere-to-telomere assembly of a human genome marks a new era of genomics where no region of the genome is beyond reach.”

In addition to spanning these complex regions, nanopore technology also provides information about base modifications, which are commonly being linked to disease — for example, methylation changes have previously been linked to normal aging and neurogenerative diseases, something an NIH team are exploring using nanopore technology. Nanopore sequencing is the only approach to enable direct, conversion-free detection of methylation changes across the whole genome, and the generation of long reads makes phasing of modifications simpler.

The T2T Consortium also published their work profiling the epigenetic landscape of the entire genome as part of this project and uncovered novel methylation patterns, including a hypomethylated and highly dense chromatin region within the centromere.

The team won’t be stopping here, stating that: “complete assembly of the CHM13 genome and our companion analyses have given only a small glimpse of the extensive structural variation that lies within the complete genome.”

[bamboo2] 28/5/2021 17:16

FOR RELEASE ON 28 May 2021

IP Group plc forms joint venture with China Everbright Ltd to launch a GBP167m* (RMB1.5bn) fund in China

IP Group plc (LSE:IPO) ("IP Group" or "the Group"), the developer of intellectual property-based businesses, is delighted to announce a joint venture with China Everbright Limited (HKG:0165) in Hong Kong to launch a fund in China aimed at providing growth capital to China-based subsidiaries of IP Group's UK portfolio companies.

The fund, which can only invest in entities incorporated in the PRC such as the China subsidiaries of overseas companies or joint venture structures, is expected to achieve a first close of RMB500m (c.GBP56 million*) later this year and increase to RMB1.5bn (c. GBP167 million*) within the next three years.

Aimed at supporting high-growth companies wanting to establish a presence in China, the fund will deploy no less than 40% of the capital to IP Group plc portfolio companies with the balance available to non-IP Group deep technology companies .

Alan Aubrey, Chief Executive of IP Group plc, said: "We are delighted to partner with one of the most renowned asset management firms in Greater China to support the growth of our portfolio companies in the region. This joint venture is consistent with our stated strategy of working with high-quality partners to provide our companies with access to expertise, network and capital."

Dr Wei Zhao, Chairman of China Everbright, said: "China Everbright has always been committed to the cultivation of high-growth technology businesses with its unique cross-border approach. We look forward to working with IP Group plc to enable world-class science and technology to make contributions to humanity."

The fund will be managed from the IP Group side by Dr Lewis Zhenyu Liu, Managing Director of IP Group Greater China and Managing Partner of IPG-CEL China Ventures, and Joyce Dan Xie, Managing Director of IP Group Greater China and Partner of IPG-CEL China Ventures. China Everbright is IP Group's exclusive partner in the RMB fund management business in China.

Dr Lewis Zhenyu Liu, Managing Director of IP Group Greater China and Managing Partner of IPG-CEL China Ventures, said: "The joint venture is dedicated to providing both financial and strategic support to deep technology businesses with unparalleled growth opportunities in one of the world's most dynamic economies."