This is the third blog in the Green Templeton lecture series, Innovation and the Future of Health: Find, Fail, Fly. Focusing on the journey from scientific breakthrough to system change, it draws on lessons from Oxford Nanopore and explores what it takes to scale a science-led company, from the role of location and the challenge of adoption to the need to balance scientific ambition with commercial reality.
You can read the earlier lecture series discussions on AI and cancer vaccine innovation and innovation and failure.
Chaired by Professor Thomas Hellmann, the discussion featured Dr Mark Bruce and Zoe McDougall from Oxford Nanopore Technologies. They reflected on what it takes to scale a science-led company, starting from Oxford Nanopore’s origins in DNA sequencing and its ambition to build an all-in-one platform that brings protein sequencing alongside its existing DNA capabilities.
In its early days, Oxford Nanopore felt much closer to a research lab than a commercial business. The focus was on developing technology. Teams were largely scientific, focused on what might be possible rather than what the market was ready to adopt.
Over time, the company moved into a more deliberate phase of commercialisation. The shift required a broader focus on applications, users and adoption. As Oxford Nanopore grew, that meant building new teams, putting products into users’ hands earlier and learning from how the technology was used in practice.
By building a user community around them, Oxford Nanopore created a feedback loop that helped shape the technology and expand its user base. That approach secured notable results with their products deployed in space and used in the field during Ebola outbreaks in Africa.
However, it was acknowledged that building new technologies is difficult but getting people to use it can be just as challenging with “patient capital” essential.
On location, the panel agreed that starting Oxford Nanopore in Oxford gave the company access to an exceptional local knowledge base. They also pointed to Oxford’s culture of ambition and its environment where others do not set the limits of what can be achieved.
You can read the full write up here.
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