We are participants in the MinION Access Program and use the device quite regularly. The Access Program is now open to anyone after registration with Oxford Nanopore.
Regarding your questions:
I don't know what you mean by 'efficiency'. For good runs, we get around 1 Gb of data, with the majority of fragments > 5 kb length. A weakness of the system is the relatively high error rate (up to 10% / base), but in the last year this has improved a lot, and hopefully will continue to get better.
For reagents/consumables: the sequencing is done on a flow cell that (practically) can only be used for one run. Library preparation is done with kits from Oxford Nanopore, supplemented with kits from NEB (end repair kit) and SPRI magnetic beads (Ampure XP beads). For a rough calculation: a run costs in the order of $1000.
Oxford Nanopore provides a standard base caller for DNA. The technique is relatively new, so few other established analysis tools are available. There is a very lively community of users though that develop, and make available, new open-access tools, like for instance base calling (including base modifications), DNA scaffolding, error corrections etc. If your question is non-standard, you may have to develop your own tools though.
We are participants in the MinION Access Program and use the device quite regularly. The Access Program is now open to anyone after registration with Oxford Nanopore.
Regarding your questions:
I don't know what you mean by 'efficiency'. For good runs, we get around 1 Gb of data, with the majority of fragments > 5 kb length. A weakness of the system is the relatively high error rate (up to 10% / base), but in the last year this has improved a lot, and hopefully will continue to get better.
For reagents/consumables: the sequencing is done on a flow cell that (practically) can only be used for one run. Library preparation is done with kits from Oxford Nanopore, supplemented with kits from NEB (end repair kit) and SPRI magnetic beads (Ampure XP beads). For a rough calculation: a run costs in the order of $1000.
Oxford Nanopore provides a standard base caller for DNA. The technique is relatively new, so few other established analysis tools are available. There is a very lively community of users though that develop, and make available, new open-access tools, like for instance base calling (including base modifications), DNA scaffolding, error corrections etc. If your question is non-standard, you may have to develop your own tools though.