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The two areas in which we would like to work in 1972 are: 
1) The southern Solomon Islands where we have initiated extensive work in 
the Rennell and Bellona Islands in the past, and have had long-term interest in 
Tikopia and Cherry Island (Anuta). If the vessel were being used by Dr. Damon's 
group in Malaita and the northern Solomons, we could use it thereafter for a 
period of six to eight weeks divided about equally among these four islands. We 
also have quite similar studies underway on the Banks and Torres Islands of the 
northern New Hebrides, and if the vessel could be used in both islands, it would 
need a full eight weeks or more of planning to work in the Torres group (at 
Ureparapara in the Banks Islands). 
The work would entail keeping the vessel offshore for the processing of 
specimens collected from sick and healthy individuals, perhaps bringing some of 
them to the ship for physiological studies, for the equipment could not be 
off-loaded. Some of the Islands have very poor anchorage and this can often 
cause problems. It is Important that a proper season for the work be picked. 
Specifically, we would try to cultivate viruses from skin diseases in tissue 
culture, and to cultivate a whole range of microorganisms from ulcers. We also 
have several other disease syndromes on which we have been working and where the 
offshore laboratory would facilitate investigations greatly. 
2) The second area we would like to work in is the remote islands of West 
Indonesia, particularly the Kai Islands, the Aru Islands and Tanimbar Islands; 
also the islands off Waigeo: Seram, Misool, Babar, Burn, Obi, Pisa and the 
Islands in the Radja Ampat group. In these areas we need to do the same type of 
work, with the addition of a good deal of human genetics and growth studies, 
which have also been initiated in the more accessible areas of West Indonesia. 
Here, in Indonesian waters, the mater of frozen preservation of specimens 
with preliminary processing (even serum, spinal fluids, urines, and tissue 
biopsies) which might in other regions be made simply a "collecting task", would 
justifiably require the use of the ALPHA HELIX and its laboratory, since here, 
unlike in the Solomon Islands and New Guinea, reliable air dispatch back to base 
laboratories is NOT available and without the use of a vessel such as this such 
studies cannot be done. However, we would surely still keep both 
microbiological culture and isolation work and tissue culture work on human 
cells (biopsies, leucocytes, buccal smear specimens) active in the laboratory. 
Here, also, we have many close collaborators from Indonesia itself, such as 
the virologist. Dr. Biroum Noerjasin, Microbiology Professor, Surabaia Medical 
School, and Dr. Ben Kawenglan, epidemiologist from Djakarta, and Dr. Sullanti 
Saroso, Chief, Communicable Disease Center, Djakarta (also Minister of Health of 
Indonesia), who are all close friends and coworkers. 
Sincerely, 
D. Carleton Gajdusek, M.D 
