It's basically a little custom microscope with a few illuminators and a Z stage for focusing (not even an XY stage). Not surprising, as sequencing has been microscopy for a while now. It uses TIRF optics.
Yeah it's been unfortunate that the electronic sensors have not been able to keep up with the optical readouts. Ion Torrent and Genapsys are barely used due to accuracy problems, but Oxford Nanopore's considerable logistical benefits of tolerating a wide range of input DNA concentration, quick time to data, low capital cost, and long reads has kept them alive. Maybe they will grow more with higher accuracy.
Illumina's patents ending recently has prompted a few new startups beyond 454.bio, including Element and Singluar, but with the stiff headwinds of FDA regulatory uncertainty and the long capital life of existing sequencers, it's hard for them to make progress even when they are far cheaper than Illumina. And then we have Ultima and MGI. The me of 10 years ago would not believe both 1) how many strong entrants we have to DNA sequencers these days, and 2) how much Illumina continues to dominate in sequencing. At some point us biologists only have ourselves to blame for our purchasing decisions and their consequences.
> At some point us biologists only have ourselves to blame for our purchasing decisions and their consequences
Yep...
Accurancy didn't have very much to do with Ion Torrent's demise. As we're reminded in the OP, Illumina pushed the MiSeq platform, and there wasn't much reason to transition to Ion Torrent. Now, with 250 bp+ PE reads on Illumina, there really isn't much special about Ion Torrent besides its somewhat superior homopolymer performance.
> but Oxford Nanopore's considerable logistical benefits of tolerating a wide range of input DNA concentration, quick time to data, low capital cost, and long reads has kept them alive. Maybe they will grow more with higher accuracy.
This statement is reasonable in today's era, but ONT was nowhere close to being competitive with Ion Torrent and other platforms during the time where labs were considering the Ion Torrent devices vs continued spend on Illumina platforms.
The accuracy, tolerance to unusual DNA samples, and read length with clinically-relevant base qualities were unusable until 2018/2019.
https://41j.com/blog/2021/05/the-next-few-years-in-dna-seque...