UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 
CHARLOTTESVILLE 
22901 
DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY 
GILMER HALL 
TEL. (804) 924-7118 
December 17, 1979 
Dr. Donald Fredrickson 
Director 
National Institutes of Health 
Bethesda, MD 20205 
Dear Dr. Fredrickson: 
A wish to communicate to you my sincere hope that the revised recombinant 
DNA guidelines as outlined in your latest directive on the subject will be put 
into effect forthwith. Although I have not personally been engaged in this 
type of research, I have been very much concerned with the safety aspects as 
recent chairman of this department in which several investigators do P2 level 
experiments. In my opinion, the reduction of experiments using E_. coli K12 
with non-transmissible vectors from the P2 to the PI level will not involve 
any biohazard to the researchers directly participating in experiments or to 
their colleagues. 
I trust that my comments will be of some help in making the decision to 
reduce the physical containment level as described in your directive. 
Lewis & Clark Professor 
of Biology 
OLMJr/ 1 j c 
C512] 
