Patent ID: 7759059

Claim:
A method for designing a nucleic acid binding protein that binds to a target nucleotide sequence, wherein the binding protein comprises a plurality of zinc fingers, and adjacent zinc fingers bind synergistically to overlapping quadruplet target subsites, and wherein the method comprises: i) selecting a quadruplet within the target nucleotide sequence; ii) designing the binding protein such that binding of a zinc finger to the quadruplet is obtained by choosing the sequence of particular residues of the zinc finger depending on the nucleotide sequence of the quadruplet, as follows: a) if base 4 in the quadruplet is A, then position +6 in the α-helix is Gln and position ++2 is not Asp; b) if base 4 in the quadruplet is C, then position +6 in the α-helix may be any residue, as long as position ++2 in the α-helix is not Asp.