Happy news for Providence for once — infusion of cash coming our way.
First: Nabsys, a technology company working on “advances in life sciences and healthcare through strategic deployment of a novel positional sequencing platform with broad applicability for DNA analysis” will get an infusion of cash from three venture capital firms. According to today’s ProJo,
The investment, to be announced Wednesday, almost doubles — to $41 million — the total raised by Nabsys since its founding in 2005. Dr. Barrett W. Bready will remain president and CEO of the company, located in the city’s Knowledge District. Nabsys expects this latest infusion of cash will help it double in size over the next year — from 50 employees to 100, most of whom will work in Providence, Bready said.
Second: Providence has taken the grand prize and $5 million in the Mayors Challenge, a contest conducted by Bloomberg Philanthropies open to mayors with innovative ideas for their cities. According to the New York Times, Mayor Taveras won with his plan for improving childhood literacy.
The children who participate in the program would wear a small device called a digital language processor that would record their daily interactions with adults. Those would then be converted into audio files containing the day’s adult word count and the number of conversational turns. That data would be used to help parents in monthly coaching sessions improve the quality of their conversations to improve their children’s vocabulary.
O-kaaaaay. I guess. I’m assuming this software will correct for words like “get the hell out of here” and “just like your father.” Would it be too much to hope that the company that makes those processors is also in Providence? Four other cities won $1 million for their projects. Good work by Mayor Taveras and his team.
(Positional sequencing image from Nabsys, nano-pushpin sold separately.)