26 
NIH Guidelines. He said he was disturbed that the first report of the 
problem came up in January and the IBC did not consider the issue until 
July. Dr. Talbot recounted the history of the incident as detailed in 
tab 929. He said in January 1980, several graduate students informed 
Dr. Ian Kennedy at the University of California, San Diego, of their 
suspicions that the Guidelines were being violated. Only in May did 
the students speak of this to the biology department chairman. The 
department chairman obtained a sample of the virus. The sample was 
sent to the California State Department of Health Services for testing. 
On July 22, 1980, the results were reported to UCSD; the vial contained 
Semliki Forest Virus rather than Sindbis Virus. The IBC met on July 30, 
1980 and immediately prohibited Dr. Kennedy from continuing reccmbinant 
DNA work. Dr. Talbot said that as detailed in tab 929, an NIH committee 
would meet on October 8, 1980 to review the incident and recommend what 
response NIH should take. Dr. Talbot said that copies of the final 
recommendations of that committee will be sent to the RAC. 
Dr. Krimsky asked why the apparent Guideline violation had occurred . 
Dr. Talbot replied that the UCSD IBC report (tab 929) gives their conclu- 
sions, and that a reply to this report from Dr. Kennedy had .just been 
received. Dr. Pinon added that Dr. Kennedy had recently resigned from 
UCSD and that a UCSD departmental committee had also submitted a report 
to the UCSD Chancellor. 
Dr. Krimsky asked about the role of the RAC in dealing with instances of 
non-compliance with the Guidelines. Dr. Talbot replied that dealing 
with an individual case is a responsibility of NIH and not the RAC. If 
from the specific case there arise generic issues suggesting a revision 
of the Guidelines, the consideration of such revisions would be a RAC 
function. 
XXV. PROTOCOLS REQUIRING ASSIOJMENT OF CONTAINMENT LEVELS (Continued) 
C. Proposal to Introduce Genes Cloned in E. coli K-12 into Arabidopsis 
Plants through the Use of Agrobacterium tumefaciens Carrying an 
E. coli/Ti Hybrid Plasmid Vector ^ 
Dr. Brill introduced a proposal (tabs 914, 931/3) from Dr. Donald J. 
Merlo, Uhiversity of Missouri-Columbia. Dr. Merlo, employing the 
following protocol, requested permission to introduce coli and 
Arabidopsis genes into Arabidopsis thaliana : 
(1) A hybrid plasmid vector, constructed from the EL coli plasmid 
pBR325 and the origin of replication and transfer genes 'of 
Agrobacterium tumefaciens plasmid Ti, will be cloned int6 
E. coli K-12. 
[ 185 ] 
