UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO 
BERKELEY • DAVIS • IRVINE • LOS ANGELES • RIVERSIDE • SAN DIECO • SAN FRANCISCO 
SANTA BARBARA • SANTA CRUZ 
SCHOOL OF MEDICINE 
DEPARTMENT OF BIOCHEMISTRY AND BIOPHYSICS 
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 94143 
(41 S) 666-4324 
December 20, 1979 
Peter Kushner 
Department of Biochemistry 
and Biophysics 
University of California 
San Francisco, CA 94143 
Donald Fredrickson 
Director of the N.I.H. 
Bethesda, MD 20205 
Dear Dr. Fredrickson: 
I urge you to adopt the proposed revisions of the recombinant DNA 
guidelines as described in the Federal Register for Friday, November 30, 
1979, pp. 69210-69251, and Section III-O in particular. These revisions 
reflect both the increasing evidence that the potential danger from these 
experiments is very low or nonexistent, and the efficacy of the principle 
of biological containment by appropriate host-vector systems. In a time 
of wide spread public fear and suspicion of "technology" it is important 
that publicly instituted safeguards reflect real dangers and not imagined 
ones, else the real dangers will go unnoticed and benevolent work will 
be unjustly restricted. 
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