LSIPR 50 2018: Martyn Andrews

Name: Martyn Andrews

Organisation: Oxford Nanopore Technologies

Position: Head of IP

Martyn Andrews has overall responsibility for the IP portfolio and global patent litigation of Oxford Nanopore Technologies, a UK company developing and selling DNA sequencing products. It has developed the world’s first and only nanopore DNA sequencer, the MinION: a proprietary technology which provides portable, real-time biological analysis. It can be used to monitor Ebola and antibiotic resistance, among other things.

A MinION nanopore sequencer was taken on the ninth NASA/SpaceX commercial cargo resupply services mission to the International Space Station in 2016. Using the device, the crew successfully sequenced DNA from bacteria, bacteriophage and rodents from samples prepared on Earth, proving the MinION’s functionality in a microgravity environment.

Oxford Nanopore was founded in 2005 and received seed funding from the IP Group, a British IP business which invests in technology companies. Oxford Nanopore’s portfolio includes around 600 patents and applications in technical areas such as protein engineering, microfabrication, informatics and solid state physics.

As well as managing Oxford Nanopore’s innovative IP portfolio Andrews supports litigation relating to the US International Trade Commission (ITC). In 2016, sequencing company Pacific Bioscience filed a complaint with the ITC accusing Oxford Nanopore of infringing two of its patents through its DNA sequencing products. In February 2018 the ITC made a final determination that no infringement of PacBio’s patents had occurred, allowing Oxford Nanopore to continue selling its products in the US.