Yale University 
SCHOOL OF MEDICINE 
333 Cedar Street 
P.O. Box 3333 
Department of Human Genetics 
New Haven, Connecticut 06310 
January 8, 1982 
Dr. William Gartland, Jr. 
Office of Recombinant DNA Activities 
National Institutes of Health 
Bethesda, MD 20205 
Dear Bill; 
At its meeting of December 17, 1981, Yale's Institutional Biosafety 
Committee voted unanimously to express its approval of the RAC proposal 
for relaxing the Recombinant DNA Guidelines, as summarized in 
Recombinant DNA Technical Bulletin, Vol. 4, No. 4, Dec., 1981. 
In the Committee's view, recombinant DNA per se presents no hazard 
that is qualitatively different from the hazards associated with the 
pathogenicity of the hosts of vectors used. Hosts or vectors containing 
recombinant DNA should, therefore, be handled according to appropriate 
guidelines already in existence, such as the CDC guidelines for work 
with infectious organisms. When the pathogenicity of the host or vector 
will be predictably changed by virtue of the donor DNA it receives, the 
containment levels for handling it should be changed accordingly; our 
Committee believes that no special guidelines for recombinant DNA are 
needed. 
We would appreciate your communicating this view to the RAC and to 
the Director of NIH. 
Sincerely yours. 
Edward A. Adelberg 
Chairman 
EAA/rjp 
[ 648 ] 
