University of Wisconsin-Madison 
LABORATORY OF GENETICS 
406 Genetics Building 
Madison, Wisconsin 53706 
0. Smithies 
at ice: (608)262-2976 
Laboratory: (608) 262-1047 
December 13, 1979 
Dr. Donald Frederickson , Director 
Nathinal Institute of Health 
Bethesda, MD 20205 
Dear Dr. Frederickson: 
I have recently had the opportunity to review the Proposed Guidelines on 
Recombinant DNA Research published in the November 30th, 1979 Federal Register. 
May I once again congratulate you on the exemplary way in which revision of 
these guidelines is being continued while still making proposals available to 
the public for scrutiny before their final adoption. 
I would like to urge you to adopt the currently proposed revisions. 
Particularly I am pleased to see - and urge the adoption of - the proposal 
(Section III-0) to allow many recombinant DNA experiments in E. coli K12 to be 
carried out after registration with the local Institutional Biosafety Committee 
without the need for registration with NIH or the submission to them of an MUA. 
Such a move will maintain documentation of the experiments should future events 
require their identification without the time-consuming and expensive process 
required to submit MUA's to the Institutes. 
Sincerely yours, 
Oliver Smithies, M.A. , D.Phil(Oxon) 
Leon J. Cole Professor of Genetics 
and Medical Genetics 
OS : fm 
[4 64] 
