NABsys Takes in $10M Round, Led by Stata, for Gene Sequencing Tools

NABsys, a Providence, MA-based gene-sequencing startup, announced today it has closed a $10 million Series C investment led by return investor Stata Venture Partners, the Needham, MA-based firm founded by Analog Devices (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ADI]]) co-founder and chairman Ray Stata (a member of the NABsys board of directors).

The new money, which brings NABsys’ total financing since inception to $21 million, will go to development and commercialization of the company’s solid-state electronic systems for single-molecule DNA sequencing and analysis. The technology uses silicon chips to detect the DNA sequences. Semiconductor pioneer Stata’s firm also led the $7 million Series B round in NABsys in February 2010.

There’s been a bit of buzz lately surrounding gene-sequencing technology developers. Ion Torrent, a new unit of Carlsbad, CA-based Life Technologies (NASDAQ: [[ticker:LIFE]]) is also developing a gene-sequencing machine that relies on semi-conductor technology. And earlier this year, UK-based Oxford Nanopore raised $41 million from investors including San Diego-based gene-sequencing giant Illumina (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ILMN]]).

Author: Erin Kutz

Erin Kutz has a background in covering business, politics and general news. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University. Erin previously worked in the Boston bureau of Reuters, where she wrote articles on the investment management and mutual fund industries. While in college, she researched for USA Today reporter Jayne O’Donnell’s book, Gen Buy: How Tweens, Teens and Twenty-Somethings Are Revolutionizing Retail. She also spent a semester in Washington, DC, reporting Capitol Hill stories as a correspondent for two Connecticut newspapers and interning in the Money section of USA Today, where she assisted with coverage on the retail and small business beats. Erin got her first taste of reporting at Boston University’s independent student newspaper, as a city section reporter and fact checker and editor of the paper’s weekly business section.