The Public Health Research Institute 
of the City of New York, Inc. 
455 First avenue, new York. n. Y. 10016 
Tel. (212) 40 1- 0746 
September 27, 1979 
Dr . Willi am Gartl and 
Office of Recombinant DNA Activities 
Nat Institute of Gen Med Sciences 
National Institutes of Health 
Room 4A52, Building 31 
Bethesda, Maryland 20205 
Dear Bill: 
I should like to communicate to you several items in connection 
with the recent RAC meeting. 
First, in connection with Ben Hall's request to grow yeast with 
cloned cytochrome C in the Genentech fermenter, I could have been 
the swing vote. I believe the experiment to be very safe but inasmuch 
as he. planned to kill the organisms before extracting the material, I 
would have liked to see the killing data for the toluene-phenol pro- 
cedure. If he had provided the data, I woul d ha ve voted in favor; there- 
fore, I suggest that you request the data from him and then if he pro- 
vides them and they are satisfactory, approve the project (I would be 
happy to back you up on that by looking at the data myself if you wish). 
Second, I enclose two resolutions that I would like the RAC to con- 
sider. One was already read and involves placing a time limit on the 
voluntary compliance provision for industry; the other is new and deals 
with a change in the basic philosophy underlying the existence of the 
committee. I suppose they ought to go into the Federal Register and be 
considered as agenda items at the next meeting. 
A third item relates to our exempting of col i K1 2 experiments. 
I still have reservations about the exemptions and feel that if the pro- 
posal is accepted by Dr. Frederi ckson , then a fairly strong directive to 
the IBC's is a minimum necessity. I suggest that the notice to the IBC's 
should contain a statement to the effect that they are expected to review 
the regi s tra t i on-MUA ' s at their earliest convenience, paying special 
attention to two questions: (1) is the experiment actually exempt 
and (ii) does it involve the cloning of genes determining potentially 
hazardous polypeptides or other products. In the latter case, it might 
be suggested that a test of this possibility be performed. 
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