STANFORD UNIVERSITY 
STANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94303 
DEPAJITMENT OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES 
December 18, 1980 
Director 
Office of Recombinant DNA Activities 
Building 31, Room AA 52 
National Institutes of Health 
Bethesda, Maryland 20205 
Dear Sir: 
Dr. Winston Brill has proposed that recombinant DNA experiments involving 
prokaryotes and lower eukaryotes nonpathogenlc for man, animals, or plants, 
can be conducted under Pi containment. (Fed. Reg. Nov. 28. 1980) 
I strongly support this proposal. It will greatly facilitate research, 
especially In lower eukaryotes such as Neurospora where present restrictions 
have made many Important experiments Impractical or underly laborious. 
The proposal Is conslstant with a suggestion made by Dewitt Stettin In 1978, 
that conditions of containment appropriate for any recombinant DNA experiment 
are those which are dictated by the most virulent or dangerous organism 
entering Into that experiment. Experience Is now sufficient that this 
principle could well be substituted for the entire guidelines. 
Sincerely yours. 
David D. Perkins 
Professor of Biology 
DDPidkh 
[551] 
