AREA CODE 600 
PHONE 2 62-2177 
McARDLE LABORATORY 
FOR CANCER RESEARCH 
MEDICAL CENTER UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN • MADISON, WISCONSIN 53706 
October 23, 1979 
Or, Donald Fredrickson 
Oi rector 
National Institutes of Health 
Betbesda, HO 20205 
Dear Don: 
I just read a copy of the letter of Roy Curtis III, sent to you on 
October 4, and I believe his advice is incorrect and based on wrong premises. 
Let me refute his arguments point by point: 
1, In the context of Roy's letter the term "wild-type" (for E, col 1 
K-12 and nonconjugatl ve plasmids or 1) is a misnomer. These are alT laboratory 
strains highly adapted to laboratory conditions. There are many relevant 
and convincing data on their poor survival and transmisslbl 1 i ty. 
2, We both know that the 1978 NIH Guidelines are a political compro- 
mise and do not properly reflect the conclusions of the Falmouth meeting. 
The proposals almost identical to that of Rowe and Campbell were made and 
justified before the 1978 Guidelines were adopted (see Recombinant DNA 
Research, 1978 Appendix A, pp. 161-4). 
3, The so-called "better survival" is insignificant and inconsequential, 
since many experiments have shown lack of transmissibi 1 1 ty for the vectors 
(COGENE Risk Assessment, 1979; Levy et^ aJL. , Nature, In press; Petrochetlou 
and Richmond, Gene 2(1 977) 323-7) . 
4, The statement that "a new pathogenic agent could be created" could 
be considered within the realm of pure demagoguery. The traces of infectivity 
of Injected polyoma DNA cloned in 2 or mouse DNA could have always been 
predicted and are of no practical Importance, What is important that the 
Ingested E. col i , which carries cloned polyoma DNA, Is not infectious. The 
only "danger 1 * o'/ cloned polyoma DNA Is If (1) DNA Is "accidently" extracted 
and purlfted, (2) A massive amount of DNA is "accidently" Injected, and 
(3) the accidently Injected "person" Is a highly sensitive hamster or mouse. 
5, If all the practical decisions have to be based on the total 
absence of "uncertainty" and on "clairvoyance", we might Just stop making 
decisions. This argument and Roy's comparisons hold no water, 
6, I have not seen any publications from Curtiss' lab on his "not 
hindered" work on cloning of eukaryotic genes in P2 or P3» This Is a 
[36 1J 
