Patent ID: 8685694

Claim:
A method for making an immunogenic T4 bacteriophage composition, comprising the following steps: (a) constructing one or more Hoc fusion proteins and one or more Soc fusion proteins; (b) isolating Hoc and Soc negative T4 bacteriophage capsids; and (c) mixing the Hoc and Soc fusion proteins with the T4 bacteriophage capsids in vitro to thereby bind the Hoc and Soc fusion proteins to the T4 bacteriophage capsids, wherein there are a defined number of Hoc and Soc binding sites on each of the capsids, wherein the Hoc and Soc fusion proteins are mixed in step (c) at a selected ratio of the number of molecules of each of the Hoc fusion proteins to the total number of Hoc binding sites and at a selected ratio of the number of molecules of each of the Soc fusion proteins to the total number of Soc binding sites, respectively, so that the copy number of each of the Hoc fusion proteins bound on each capsid after step (c) is controlled and the copy number of each of the Soc fusion proteins bound on each capsid after step (c) is controlled, wherein fewer than all of the Hoc binding sites on each of the capsids are bound by the Hoc fusion proteins after step (c), and wherein the ratio of the number of molecules of the one or more Hoc fusion proteins to the total number of Hoc binding sites on the T4 bacteriophage capsids mixed in vitro during step (c) is between 1:5 and 1:100.