Patent Document ID: 6096548
Application ID: 08792409
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of directing evolution of a virus to increase the efficiency with which it infects a host cell, comprising: (1) recombining a DNA segment from the virus to be evolved with at least a second DNA segment, the second DNA segment differing from the first DNA segment in at least two nucleotides, to produce a library of recombinant DNA segments; (2) contacting host cells with a collection of viruses having genomes including the recombinant DNA segments, and screening for viruses that infect the host cells, (3) recombining at least one recombinant DNA segment from a virus infecting the host cells with a further DNA segment, the same or different from the first and second segments, to produce a further library of recombinant DNA segments; (4) contacting host cells with a collection of viruses having genomes including the further recombinant DNA segments, and screening for viruses that infect the cells, (5) repeating (3) and (4), as necessary, until a virus having a genome including a recombinant segment from a further library infects the host cells with a desired efficiency.