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List of Molecular Reality Corporation hardware

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From Molecupedia, the encyclopedia of very small things
Instruments, rigs and devices of Molecular Reality Corporation
A nanopore chip epoxied to the tip of a rail above a black micro-positioning stage with red 3D-printed parts
"The old piezo", the positioning stage at the center of the company's early sliding-pore experiments, as photographed in 2026

This is a list of the hardware built, bought, designed or named by Molecular Reality Corporation and its predecessor, demonpore, inc., from the sliding-pore rigs of 2015 to the planned successors of the MR series. Most of it measures the electric current through a single hole while particles or molecules pass through. Several entries were never sold, and the company's one complete instrument design of 2026, the MR1 Nanopore Reader, had not been built when it was published.

The company's own name for its instruments is "molecular streaming devices". Two different devices have been called MR1.[1]

Hardware

Hardware of Molecular Reality Corporation, by first year of use or record
Years Device Kind Status Notes
2015 to 2016 Sliding-occlusion bench rigs Laboratory rig Retired The first sliding occlusion runs read the current on a benchtop picoammeter as one surface slid over another. A video of the results is titled "best pore data yet" (Pre-Wright Brothers Flights).[1]
Until about 2021 "demonpore's workhorse" Laboratory rig with a piezo positioner Idle "The actual center of instrumentation for all of our older experiments". In 2026 the company described it as "a slightly abandoned rocket launch pad that needs to get cleaned up so we can resume sliding occlusion experiments."[1]
About 2018 Underpore with sliding top blade Pore chip Retired A pore 200 nm wide, drilled in silicon by focused ion beam and tested at the company's office on Edison Way in Menlo Park, California. It gave what the founder called "the best single afternoon of collecting data we ever achieved".[2]
Late 2018 Microparticle turnstile Configuration of an adjustable pore Retired The arrangement into which a pore was turned the day after the first blood went through it; the company's records list "gating and oversampling of individual cells and nanoparticles" in January 2019.[1]
From January 2020 Molecular Aquarium Silicon test platform Arrays made, not tested A 2 by 2 cm die on which a selector plate, driven by a harmonic gear, slides over arrays of small pores "like a vernier caliper". Begun as a response to COVID-19, the CoronaPore project.[1]
2020 to 2021 demonpore 64 Nanopore reader in the form of a game console Not released A custom patch-clamp amplifier, a 3D-printed syringe pump and swappable pore cartridges in a case with "the general appearance and footprint of a classic 1980s gaming console", run through Maxine's Quest.[3]
2020 to 2021 Teabiscuits Electronics platform A board of the same name built in early 2024 The electronics of the demonpore 64, specified for picoampere to nanoampere currents at 125 kHz, with a cartridge swap of under 20 seconds. An outside electronics designer produced its core.[1]
2020 to 2021 Joystick for science Game controller "sitting on Kemmishtree's desk" Plugged into the demonpore 64 through "a Db9 plug for a custom joystick" and steered its syringe pump and electronics.[3]
2020 or 2021 Knot-sequencing cell Demonstration Retired Two chambers of salt solution joined by a hole about 2 mm wide, through which knots in a nylon filament were pulled (knot sequencing).[4]
About 2021 to 2023 Burnerphone Unit for making pores by controlled dielectric breakdown Withdrawn from sale The company "pivoted away from commercial sale" because of existing intellectual property on the method, and decided to make its pores centrally, on wafers.[1]
2022 The zapper Control In Maxine's Quest since 2026 A red-handled "zapper stick" that "applies a brief spike of maximum voltage", for "clearing clogged smaller pores" among other uses.[3]
2024 to 2026 MR1 Molecular Streaming Device Handheld prototype Not shipped "A portable device about the size of a large smartphone", with an ESP32-S3 microcontroller, an LMP7721 amplifier and a 3D-printed case "available in various colors including lapis lazuli".[1][5]
2026 EDR4 Commercial four-channel patch-clamp amplifier In use Bought from the Italian maker Elements srl. Unit e4-00044 has made every recording of real data on the live molecular stream, at up to 200 kHz; the company's guide calls it "the laboratory's ear".[6]
2026 Flowcell Flow cell In use Listed as a "d2600 style cell", a "delrin/teflon combo with luer locks and potted electrode".[1]
2026 200-micron laser-drilled pore Macropore In use The hole on the live stream, listed on the company's shelf as a "laser-drilled macropore".[1]
2026 Laboratory cameras Webcams In use A basic model that reports itself as "USB2.0 Camera" and an EMEET SmartCam C950 4K, labeled "Microscope" and "Fluidics" over the stream's trace (Camtest).
October 16, 2026 MR1 Nanopore Reader Open hardware design Not built; public domain since October 21, 2026 Four modules: a pump module powered through USB-C, a reader that samples the current 100,000 times a second, a hexagonal cartridge and an amplifier built around an LMP7721. Earlier names: Sentinel Nanopore Reader and Daemon Pore.[7][8]
Planned MR2, MR3 and MR4 Pore arrays Names only MR2 is a 64-pore array the company calls the "Molecular PC"; MR3 would read thousands of pores and MR4 tens of thousands to millions. No dates have been given.[1]

Names

"MR" stands for Molecular Reality. The first MR1, a handheld, was listed on the founder's CV as "formerly demonpore 64"; the second, a desktop design, carried the working name "Daemon Pore" until a commit of October 18, 2026.[9][5] The company has not explained the 64 in the console's name. In 2026 the founder wrote that the company still wanted to ship "a very similar product and call it the 'demonpore 64', but it will be at least a 64-channel device."[10]

Lineage

The company traces its instruments to the Coulter counter, patented in 1953, which counted blood cells by the dips in a current through a hole about 100 µm wide; its field guide calls the company "a small branch on a seventy year old tree".[6] The amplifiers come from patch-clamp electrophysiology, developed to record the ion channels of living cells. The console form came from the home video game machines of the early 1980s, and a company chatbot later described the demonpore 64 prototype as "housed in a repurposed Atari 2600 case".[1] The Ultra-Device of the company's 2022 overview, a single instrument with several thousand independently controlled channels, is a thought experiment. The company argues that its volunteers and their small instruments could add up to the same machine, a "Virtual Ultra-Device".[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Company records". Molecular Reality Corporation. October 2026.
  2. ^ Kemmishtree (March 29, 2026). "Focused Ion Beam pore". EQBio-OS.
  3. ^ a b c d "Scientific and technical overview". Molecular Reality Corporation. December 2022.
  4. ^ Kemmishtree (March 29, 2026). "Sequencing a string". EQBio-OS.
  5. ^ a b Ferris Calloway (October 23, 2026). "There Are Two MR1s and That Is Fine". Debye Length.
  6. ^ a b "Keltar's Field Guide to Molecular Reality". Molecular Reality Corporation. August 2026.
  7. ^ "MR1 Nanopore Reader". GitHub. October 16, 2026.
  8. ^ "Relicense project to Public Domain under CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0-1.0)" (commit a52fc0b). EpicQuestBio/MR1. October 21, 2026.
  9. ^ "Kent Kemmish". Molecular Reality Corporation. May 2026.
  10. ^ Kemmishtree (March 28, 2026). "2022 sci-tech overview". EQBio-OS.
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