ROCHE INSTITUTE OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 
Nutley, New Jersty 07110 
January 19, 1982 
Dr. William Gartland 
Director of the Office of 
Recombinant DNA 
Dept, of Health & Human Services 
National Institutes of Health 
Bethesda, Md. 20205 
Dear Dr . Gartland : 
I am responding to your Invitation for comments on the recent 
proposal for major revisions of the "National Institutes of Health Guidelines 
For Research Involving Recombinant DNA Molecules." 
I would like to register my support for the recommendation of the NIH 
Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC) . This proposal is based on careful 
consideration and analysis of the scientific evidence relevant to this 
topic which has been accumulated over the last several years. These analyses 
have been carefully documented in the point-by-point discussions published 
in the report of the Working Group on Revisions of the Guidelines. In 
contrast, the alternative proposal, which appears in Item 7 in the Federal 
Register notice of December 7, fails to provide any substantial justification 
for its recommendations. 
I would like to congratulate NIH and the RAC for their timely and 
responsible action on this matter which is of great importance to the 
American public as well as to all of us in the scientific community. 
Ai M. Skalka, Ph.D. 
Department of Cell Biology 
AMS :pcp 
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