On 8 July, HRH The Princess Royal presented the 2026 MacRobert Award to Oxford Nanopore Technologies for a technology that reads DNA and RNA by threading single molecules through a hole barely wider than the strand itself.
The MacRobert Award is the UK’s leading prize for engineering innovation. Recognizing Oxford Nanopore gene sequencing reflects a shift in how the engineering community values biological tools. This technology is not limited to laboratories; it is a portable device used in the Amazon rainforest, on the International Space Station, and in field hospitals during disease outbreaks.
Traditional DNA sequencing, such as that used in the Human Genome Project, requires costly equipment, controlled environments, and significant time to produce results. Oxford Nanopore gene sequencing operates differently. A biological nanopore, a small protein channel, is embedded in a synthetic membrane. An anionic current flows through the pore, and when a DNA or RNA strand passes through, it partially blocks the current. The resulting disruption pattern reveals the sequence of bases. This process does not require fluorescent labels, optical cameras, or clean rooms.
The company’s smallest device, the MinION, weighs less than 100 grams and connects to a laptop via USB. It can sequence a complete bacterial genome within hours. During the COVID-19 pandemic, nanopore sequencers were deployed in over 100 countries to track variants in near real time, identifying mutations weeks before conventional sequencing methods. In clinical settings, this technology can identify pathogens within hours, enabling doctors to prescribe targeted antibiotics rather than broad-spectrum treatments.
The MacRobert Award shortlist also featured the WeWALK Smart Cane, which uses ultrasonic sensors to assist visually impaired users, and Transmission Dynamics, which developed advanced gear testing equipment. Both address significant challenges, but the judges selected Oxford Nanopore for its broad impact. The award includes a gold medal and a £50,000 prize.
Oxford Nanopore was founded in 2005 as a spin-out from the University of Oxford. The concept of using a nanopore as a sensor originated in 1990s academic research, but commercializing it required advances in biology, materials science, electronics, and software. The biological pore needed engineering for stability, the membrane had to be thin yet durable, the electronics had to detect picoampere-level current changes at high sampling rates, and the software had to interpret noisy signals from single molecules moving at variable speeds.
The result is a unique system. Competing platforms from Illumina and PacBio offer high accuracy but require significant laboratory infrastructure. Oxford Nanopore sacrifices some raw accuracy for portability, speed, and the ability to read very long DNA fragments, sometimes over a million bases in a single read. These long reads are especially valuable for assembling complete genomes and detecting structural variants missed by short-read technologies.
Engineering Deep Dive: The physics behind Oxford Nanopore gene sequencing
Each nanopore sequencer contains a protein pore embedded in a polymer membrane. Oxford Nanopore uses a modified version of CsgG, a bacterial protein that forms a channel with a constriction about 1.2 nanometres wide. For comparison, a double-stranded DNA helix is approximately 2.0 nanometres in diameter, so only single-stranded DNA can pass through.
The membrane is positioned over a small well in an array chip, with each well containing its own electrode and measurement circuit. The MinION chip has 512 channels, while larger PromethION devices have thousands. A voltage of about 180 millivolts is applied across the membrane, driving ions through the pore and generating a measurable current of 100 to 200 picoamperes. When a DNA strand enters the pore, its bases partially block the ion flow, reducing the current. Each base (adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine) affects the current differently due to variations in size and charge distribution.
The signal is not a simple step function. Multiple bases occupy the pore’s constriction simultaneously, so the current reflects a combination of several bases. A motor enzyme attached to the pore regulates the strand’s movement, typically at 400 to 450 bases per second. The raw signal is sampled at 4,000 Hz and processed by a neural network, known as a basecaller, which translates the current trace into a sequence of letters.
If you are studying A-level physics, the detection principle connects to electrostatics and charge transport. The ionic current through the pore can be modelled using Ohm’s law at a nanoscale: I = V/R, where the resistance R depends on the pore geometry and the electrolyte concentration. When a DNA base enters the constriction, it effectively increases R by reducing the cross-sectional area available for ion flow. The change in current for a single base substitution can be as small as 1 to 5 picoamperes, which demands low-noise amplifier circuits operating close to the thermal noise limit.
The enzyme controlling strand translocation is a helicase or polymerase modified to sit atop the pore. Without this enzyme, DNA would pass through the pore in microseconds, too quickly to resolve individual bases. The motor enzyme moves the strand one base at a time, acting as a molecular brake. Engineering this enzyme for stability and consistent speed was among the company’s most significant challenges.
The polymer membrane represents another materials engineering challenge. It must be electrically insulating, chemically stable in salt solution, and thin enough to support the pore protein without sagging or tearing. Early research used lipid bilayers similar to cell membranes, but these proved too fragile for commercial use. Oxford Nanopore developed proprietary polymer membranes that can be manufactured consistently and withstand shipping and storage.
A key feature of this technology is its ability to sequence RNA directly, without converting it to DNA - a process called reverse transcription that can introduce errors and lose information about chemical modifications. Direct RNA sequencing preserves methylation patterns and other epigenetic markers, providing a more complete view of gene expression. This capability was especially valuable during COVID-19 surveillance, where detecting specific RNA modifications helped track viral evolution.
The MacRobert Award has previously recognized technologies such as the Rolls-Royce Trent engine and the catalytic converter. Including a gene sequencer in this lineage highlights the evolving direction of engineering. The boundaries between biology and electronics are narrowing, and the resulting tools are becoming smaller, faster, and increasingly significant.
- Oxford Nanopore Technologies won the 2026 MacRobert Award, the UK’s top engineering innovation prize
- Their nanopore sequencing reads DNA and RNA in real time by threading molecules through a protein pore 1.2nm wide
- The MinION device weighs under 100g and can identify pathogens in hours, not weeks
- Used in 100+ countries during COVID-19 to track variants in near real time
