Patent ID: 6841535

Claim:
A transfection agent comprising a peptide of between about 16 to 30 amino a acid residues, said peptide comprising: a) a hydrophobic domain comprising at least four amino acid residues, wherein the hydrophobic domain comprises a plurality of aromatic amino acid residues and a first hydrophobic locus spaced by at least one amino acid residue from a second hydrohpobic locus, wherein each of the first and second hydrophobic loci comprise one or more hydrophobic amino acid residues independently selected from the group consisting of Phe, Tyr, Trp, Thr, Met, Leu, Val, Ile, Ala, and His, and wherein at least two of said plurality of aromatic amino acid residues occur in a pair in the first hydrophobic locus or the second hydrophobic locus; b) a hydrophilic domain comprising up to about twelve amino acid residues, wherein the hydrophilic domain comprises a plurality of basic amino acid residues; c) optionally a spacer sequence between said hydrophobic and said hydrophilic domain, wherein said spacer comprises from between one to about ten amino acid residues; and d) further optionally a functional group conjugated to one or more termini of said peptide.