Patent ID: 7118737

Claim:
A composition comprising an isolated synthetic bioactive protein having the formula Protein-h k U k Polymer-J*, wherein Protein comprises a polypeptide chain of a ribosomally specified protein, said polypeptide chain comprising one or more non-overlapping peptide segments covalently bonded by one or more chemical ligation sites, U is a residue of a unique functional group covalently bonded to a mutually reactive unique functional group of a side chain h of one or more internal amino acids of one or more of said non-overlapping peptide segments, where k is a discrete integer selected from 1 to 6, Polymer is a substantially non-antigenic water-soluble polymer, and J* is a pendant group having a net charge under physiological conditions selected from the group consisting of negative, neutral and positive, and wherein the composition is uniform with respect to the attachment sites of the Polymer to the Protein; and wherein said synthetic bioactive protein comprises a monomer molecular weight of greater than 25,000 Daltons.