Cepheid and Oxford Nanopore Expand Partnership for Infectious Disease Genomics

Sunnyvale-based Cepheid and UK-based Oxford Nanopore Technologies have expanded their partnership to advance genomic workflows for infectious disease research, announced in a press release.

The second phase of their collaboration focuses on developing a workflow for rapid identification of bacterial and fungal pathogens, building on progress from the first phase introduced at the ESCMID Global 2025 conference. The new workflow will support pathogen identification, antimicrobial resistance profiling, and genomic antibiotic susceptibility testing predictions for bloodstream infection and sepsis research.

This phase will include product design enhancements and a co-commercialized research use only (RUO) launch to expand accessibility. The workflow will operate on Cepheid’s GeneXpert platform combined with Oxford Nanopore’s sequencing technology to streamline genomic analysis from both culture isolates and positive blood cultures.

Early beta access is already available to select research groups, with broader early access planned for the third quarter of 2026. Both companies are presenting their progress at ESCMID Global this week.