Oxford Nanopore and Lonza Launch First GMP-Grade Direct RNA Sequencing Solution for mRNA Quality Control
Key Insights
Oxford Nanopore Technologies (search) and Lonza have launched the first commercially available direct RNA sequencing solution designed for GMP-grade quality control testing of mRNA (search) products, completing a development program that began in early 2024.
The solution consolidates multiple critical quality attributes of mRNA (search) products into a single platform workflow, potentially reducing testing timelines from weeks to less than a day while assessing identity, integrity, length distribution, poly-A tail length, and capping efficiency.
The technology represents a significant advancement for the expanding mRNA (search) therapeutics sector, which has evolved from emergency vaccine platforms to include personalized cancer (search) vaccines, rare disease (search) treatments, and prophylactic vaccines requiring validated regulatory QC methodologies.
Oxford Nanopore Technologies (search) and Lonza have launched the first commercially available direct RNA sequencing solution designed for GMP-grade quality control testing of mRNA (search) products, marking a significant advancement in analytical testing for the rapidly expanding mRNA therapeutics sector. The solution completes a development program that began in early 2024 and represents the first multi-attribute QC method for mRNA therapies designed to function within a regulated manufacturing environment.
Revolutionary Multi-Attribute Testing Platform
The solution, built on Oxford Nanopore's direct sequencing technology using its GridION (search) platform, allows multiple critical quality attributes of mRNA (search) products to be assessed simultaneously on a single platform at the same manufacturing site. This approach eliminates the need for the battery of separate analytical methods traditionally required to assess each attribute individually.
Attributes measurable within a single workflow include mRNA (search) identity, integrity, length distribution, poly-A tail length, and capping efficiency—all critical quality parameters for mRNA therapeutics and vaccines that regulators require to be characterized before release. Lonza has validated the method at its QC laboratories in Geleen, the Netherlands, following pre-validation work at its analytical development facility on the same site.
Dramatic Reduction in Testing Timelines
A defining benefit of the platform compared to existing methods is speed. By consolidating multiple analytical readouts onto one technology, the integrated workflow has the potential to reduce testing timelines from weeks to less than a day—a significant competitive advantage in a sector where analytical testing sits on the critical path to batch release and clinical or commercial supply.
Automated data analysis and reporting are built into the system, designed to deliver consistent, QC-ready outputs that support decision-making across the product lifecycle without requiring manual interpretation of complex sequence data.
Unique Direct RNA Sequencing Capabilities
Oxford Nanopore's direct sequencing technology is the first and only approach capable of reading the native RNA molecule without conversion to DNA. This distinction provides advantages in detecting chemically modified nucleotides such as N1-Methyl-pseudouridine (search), which is integral to the design of mRNA (search) vaccines and therapeutics and cannot be detected by conventional sequencing methods that require reverse transcription.
Sönke Stocker, Executive Director of R&D mRNA (search) and External Innovation at Lonza, described the launch as representing an important step forward in how mRNA quality control can be performed. He characterized the combination of nanopore sequencing with machine learning-based analysis as introducing a simplified multi-attribute approach that better aligns GMP quality control with the pace and complexity of modern mRNA development.
Addressing Growing Market Demands
The commercial launch follows a period in which mRNA (search) has matured from an emergency vaccine platform to a broad therapeutic modality. Personalized cancer (search) vaccines, rare disease (search) treatments, and prophylactic vaccines are in development across numerous companies, all of which will require validated, regulatorily accepted QC methodologies before products can enter late-stage trials or commercial supply.
The workflow is now positioned as a component of Lonza's analytical development offering for biopharmaceutical clients manufacturing mRNA (search) products, providing a streamlined solution for an increasingly complex and time-sensitive manufacturing environment.