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Discussion on the section of “Roles and Responsibilities 1 ' was also 
very lively. Many suggestions were made to specify more clearly the 
duties of local Biohazards Committees. Some question was brought up 
by the environmentalist groups whether these Biohazards Committees 
could, in fact be relied upon to perform their duties seriously and 
conscientiously. Local Biohazards Committees were supported most 
vigorously by Mr. Dennis Helms, Special Assistant to the New Jersey 
Attorney General and an ad hoc member of the Advisory Committee, 
who assured all present that his experience with the various Biohazards 
Committees in the State of N.J., indicated that these Committees did 
take their responsibilities quite seriously and in his opinion were 
capable of executing those responsibilities conscientiously. 
Nicholas Wade's article in Science (Jan. 6), reports on some of the 
more “glamorous’’ comments made during the session in which each 
member of the Advisory Committee gave a short oral summary of his 
impressions (fuller, written summaries will be mailed to Dr. 
Fredrickson). What Wade's article fails to stress, is the strong feeling 
expressed by a majority of the members of this Committee, that the 
present proposed revisions certainly seem justified and should be 
adopted. Several members expressed the view that even further 
relaxation seemed justified in several areas (i.e. animal virus and plant 
“Experimental Guidelines"). 
Before adjournment, Dr. Frederickson announced that the records 
would be left open for another 30 days and he invited comments from all 
interested parties. Based on these, and comments that he will receive in 
writing from members of his Advisory Committee, he will decide 
whether to accept the proposed revised Guidelines on Recombinant 
DNA Research. 
(6) U.S.-EMBO Workshop to Assess Risks for Recombinant DNA 
Experiments Involving the Genomes of Animal, Plant, and 
Insect Viruses, Jan. 26-28, 1978. 
As was suggested in the above report on the December 15-16 meeting 
at NIH, this Workshop was held in response to discussion concerning 
viruses. The Virus Workshop, like that at Falmouth, was a meeting of 
experts in the discipline of interest. The meeting held in Ascot, England 
was attended by 27 scientists from the U.S., W. Germany, Finland, 
France, Sweden, and Switzerland. One member of COGENE (J. Tooze) 
was among the participants. The purpose of the meeting was “to 
conduct a scientific and technical analysis of possible risks associated 
with cloning eukaryotic viral DNA segments in E. coli K-12 host-vector 
systems and with the use of eukaryotic viruses as cloning vectors in 
animal, plant, and insect systems". A full report appears in the U.S. 
Federal Register of March 31, 1978. With respect to cloning in E. coli K- 
12, the group concluded “That the probability that K-12 organisms 
carrying viral DNA inserts could represent a significant hazard to the 
community was so small as to be of no practical consequence”. A 
lengthy discussion outlines the evidence supporting this conclusion 
and the strong feeling that “viral genomes or fragments thereof, cloned 
in E. coli K-12 using approved plasmid or phage vectors pose no more 
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