It's been a big week of fundraising gains for Jackson Laboratory, a Maine medical research institution that focuses on mice.

Earlier this week, the nonprofit received a $24.6 million federal grant for its database of genetic information on laboratory mice from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Yesterday, NIH announced it was distributing another $110 million to three American laboratories that are contributing to its "knockout mice" initiative. These special mice help with disease research because they have had their genes altered by scientists. Around $33 million of this funding will go to Jackson Laboratory.

That's a total NIH haul of almost $58 million for the Bar Harbor-based lab last week.

1,300 people work at the lab, making it Downeast Maine's largest employer.