GenPharm International Inc. announced Wednesday that it hasreceived a two-year Phase II small business innovationresearch (SBIR) grant for more than $500,000 from theNational Institutes of Health to develop its technology for theproduction of a transgenic rat model of Alzheimer's disease.

The company is working to develop rat embryonic stem cells,which Jonathan MacQuitty, GenPharm's chief executive officer,said will enable researchers to do genetic manipulations of therat genome. For instance, he said, large pieces of DNA could beintroduced into or deleted from the rat genome at specificlocations. He said genetic manipulations are currently limited tomicroinjection of small pieces of DNA.

Mouse embryonic stem cells exist now, but MacQuitty said ratsare considered more useful animal models since they are largerand have a history of use in behavioral studies.

GenPharm of Mountain View, Calif., has received three previousPhase II SBIR awards from NIH. The first funded developmentof human monoclonal antibody production in mice. Two others,awarded last August, funded the development of novelimmunodeficient mice and specific transgenic animals thatexpress human immunoglobulin genes. Including the fourthPhase II grant, NIH support for the company totals nearly $2million. -- Brenda Sandburg

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