Novartis Ag

Gabor Veres

Ivan Plavec

Sonia Escaich

Heini Ilves

Ernst Boehnlein

Susanne Dagmar Pippig

Manju Agarwal

The present invention concerns a method of identifying genetically modified mammalian cells using a mutated protein-tyrosine kinase receptor (PTKR) as a selectable marker in mammalian cells. Particularly preferred mutated PTKR selective markers are mutated epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) family members, and muscle specific tyrosine kinase receptor (MuSK-R) family members. Further a method for the immunoselection of transduced mammalian cells is disclosed comprising retrovirally transducing mammalian cells with a nucleic acid sequence encoding a mutated EGFR, incubating the transduced cells with a marked antibody which recognizes and binds specifically to the mutated PTKR, and identifying the marked transduced cells.

Selectable cell surface marker genes

Novel antisense sequences to the unspliced or single spliced portions of mRNA transcript from HIV-1 provirus, optionally co-expressed with an inhibitory transdominant mutant HIV-1 protein, are found to be useful in the treatment of HIV-1 infection.

Inhibition of HIV-1 replication by antisense RNA expression

This invention relates to a method of using scaffold attachment regions (SARs) to increase expression in retrovirally transduced resting cells. A particularly preferred SAR is the 5&prime; SAR of the human interferon &bgr; gene or a fragment thereof having at least 450 base pairs.

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Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Gabor Veres