High-affinity oligonucleotide ligands to vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)

A method of identifying nucleic acid ligands to vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), comprising:

• a) contacting a candidate mixture of nucleic acids with VEGF, wherein nucleic acids having an increased affinity to VEGF relative to the candidate mixture may be partitioned from the remainder of the candidate mixture;
• b) partitioning the increased affinity nucleic acids from the remainder of the candidate mixture;
• and
• c) amplifying the increased affinity nucleic acids to yield a ligand enriched mixture of nucleic acids, whereby nucleic acid ligands to VEGF may be identified.