Patent ID: 7198793

Claim:
A method of transferring a transgene to a mammalian cell comprising: transfecting a eukaryotic host cell with a vector system comprising: (a) a BIV vector construct comprising: a DNA segment from a BIV genome, a packaging sequence to package RNA into vinons; a promoter operably linked to said segment; and a transgene operably linked to a second promoter, wherein at least one of vpw, vpy and tat is deleted from said BIV construct; (b) a BIV packaging construct comprising: a BIV sequence comprising a gag gene, a pol gene or both of BIV operably linked to a promoter, and a downstream polyadenylation sequence; and (c) an expression construct comprising a gene encoding a viral surface protein; culturing the transfected host cell and collecting the virions produced; and administering the collected virions to a mammalian cell to allow infection of the mammalian cell and thereby transferring the transgene.