GenPharm International Inc. announced Wednesday that it hasreceived a $5.3 million, three-year grant from the NationalInstitute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to support thedevelopment of its transgenic technology using yeast artificialchromosomes (YACs) to insert large genes into transgenicanimal models.

GenPharm has incorporated the sequences, including humanDNA, into its YACs via lipofection. In this method, "the lipidmicelles containing the YACs are cultured with mouseembryonic stem (ES) cells, which allows the YAC DNA to mergewith the mouse DNA," explained Howard Rosen, the director ofcorporate development at the Mountain View, Calif., company.

GenPharm scientists use antibiotic resistance as a marker todetermine whether the transfections have been successful.Some of the YACs have contained more than 500,000 bases,Rosen told BioWorld.

"We have successfully generated transgenic animals containingseveral different genes," added Robert Kay, GenPharm's vicepresident of research and development.

GenPharm expects its YAC technology to apply to transgenicanimal models of human genetic diseases, as well as to creatinganimals that are capable of producing completely humanmonoclonal antibodies. -- Jennifer Van Brunt

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