Plasmidsaurus
| Private | |
| ISIN | 🆔 |
| Industry | Biotechnology |
| Founded 📆 | 2021 |
| Founder 👔 | Mark Budde |
Area served 🗺️ | Global |
| Services | DNA sequencing, RNA-Seq |
| Members | |
Number of employees | |
| 🌐 Website | www |
| 📇 Address | |
| 📞 telephone | |
Plasmidsaurus is an American biotechnology company based in South San Francisco, California. The company provides DNA and RNA sequencing-as-a-service. It is best known for democratizing access to whole-plasmid sequencing and RNA-Seq, a model that has disrupted the traditional sequencing market and reportedly caused shifts in how academic core facilities operate.[1]
History
The company was founded in 2021 by Mark Budde to address the logistical and cost barriers associated with verifying plasmid constructs in synthetic biology research. Initially bootstrapping its operations, the company grew by utilizing the Oxford Nanopore Technologies platform to offer low-cost verification of DNA materials.
In 2024, Plasmidsaurus formally expanded its strategic collaboration with Oxford Nanopore. The multi-million dollar agreement established Plasmidsaurus as a key commercial user of the nanopore platform, aiming to displace traditional Sanger sequencing in specific sectors of the synthetic biology market.[2]
Services and impact
Plasmidsaurus utilizes a "sequencing-as-a-service" model where researchers mail samples for overnight processing. The company's primary technology is long-read nanopore sequencing, which allows for the resolution of complex DNA structures (such as repetitive regions) that are often difficult to sequence with short-read methods.
The company's approach has been cited in methodological papers for reducing the effective cost of whole-plasmid sequencing to approximately $15 per sample, significantly lower than the aggregated cost of multiple Sanger reactions required to cover the same sequence length.[3]
In late 2025, the company launched an RNA-Seq service. Industry reporting by GenomeWeb noted that the service's low cost and rapid turnaround time created "unease" among traditional academic genomic core facilities, which typically operate on longer timelines and higher price points.[1]
Industry background
The company operates in a market historically reliant on Sanger sequencing for quality control. In 2024, a study highlighted in Nature revealed that nearly half of commercially provided plasmids contained significant errors, such as truncated sequences or incorrect backbones, which legacy methods often missed.[4] Plasmidsaurus capitalized on this reliability gap by offering long-read sequencing that could resolve the full length of plasmid DNA.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Zhang, Huanjia (24 November 2025). "Plasmidsaurus RNA-seq Service Sparks Interest From Researchers, Unease From Academic Cores". GenomeWeb. Retrieved 28 December 2025.
- ↑ "Oxford Nanopore strikes collaboration and contract expansion with Plasmidsaurus". Financial Times / Sharecast. 23 July 2024. Retrieved 28 December 2025.
- ↑ Uematsu, Masaaki; Baskin, Jeremy M. (2025). "Barcode-free multiplex plasmid sequencing using Bayesian analysis and nanopore sequencing". eLife. 12. doi:10.7554/eLife.88794. PMC 12029211 Check
|pmc=value (help). PMID 40277466 Check|pmid=value (help). Unknown parameter|article-number=ignored (help) - ↑ Kozlov, Max (2024). "Serious errors plague DNA tool that's a workhorse of biology". Nature. 631 (8021): 487–488. Bibcode:2024Natur.631..487B. doi:10.1038/d41586-024-02280-1. PMID 38987344 Check
|pmid=value (help).
Category:Biotechnology companies of the United States Category:Companies based in South San Francisco Category:Companies founded in 2021 Category:Genomics
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