Patent ID: 8165823

Claim:
A method for identifying a polypeptide which acts as an adjuvant in a host organism, comprising the steps of: a) generating protein families by grouping together amino acid sequences from at least a different pathogenic organisms, which sequences share a BLAST alignment with an E-score less than 1E-05; b) selecting a protein family generated in step a), wherein: (i) the family includes sequences from at least b different pathogenic organisms, and (ii) at least one of the proteins in the family does not share a BLAST alignment with an E-score smaller than 1E-05 with amino acid sequences from a chosen non-pathogenic organism; c) determining sequence motifs that are conserved within the family selected in step b) implemented by a computer, wherein the computer comprises a processor; and d) selecting a polypeptide sequence that comprises the motifs determined in step c), thereby identifying the polypeptide, wherein: a is at least 60 and b is at least 30, where b<a.