Patent ID: 7960102

Claim:
A method for selecting a regulated aptamer comprising the steps of: a) identifying a first pool of candidate aptamers comprising a first binding domain that binds to a first ligand, wherein the first ligand is selected from the group consisting of a small molecule, a peptide, a protein and a saccharide, and a second pool of candidate aptamers comprising a second binding domain that binds to a second ligand, wherein the second ligand is a protein or a peptide; b) engineering a chimeric pool of aptamers wherein individual aptamers within the chimeric pool comprise a first binding domain of a candidate aptamer from the first candidate pool linked to a second binding domain of a candidate aptamer from the second candidate pool; and c) selecting, using SELEX, an aptamer from the chimeric pool wherein binding of the second ligand by the second binding domain of the selected aptamer is activated by binding of the first ligand by the first binding domain, and wherein binding of the second ligand by the second binding domain modulates a biological activity of the second ligand.