MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 
CENTER FOR CANCER RESEARCH 
77 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 02139 
August 9, 1978 
Dr. Donald Frederickson 
Director 
National Institutes of Health 
Bethesda, Maryland 20014 
Dear Don, 
I am writing to support issuance of the Revised Guidelines 
for Recombinant DNA Research as they are described in the Federal 
Register for 28 July, 1978. 
The original Guidelines were purposely designed to be more 
stringent than most biologists thought necessary because our lack 
of experience with recombinant DNA seemed to imply a need to err on 
the side of caution. Revision is now long overdue: we have extensive 
experience with recombinant DNA and many demonstrations of the power 
of recombinant DNA methods to advance scientific knowledge. All of 
the evidence suggests that the original Guidelines were much too 
restrictive. 
T ^m personally gratified that research will now be speeded in 
animal virology. With a simplification of containment practices for 
cloning animal viral DNAs, it will become possible to clone many DNA 
copies of RNA virus genome and thus, for the first time, it will be 
possible to derive complete sequence data on such viruses. Progress 
in all aspects of animal virology will be speeded when the Revised 
Guidelines are issued, with important implications for the improvement 
of health and well-being in the country and abroad. 
. I am also gratified to see increased flexibility built into the 
Guidelines. With research advancing so rapidly, it is difficult to 
be comprehensive in the Guidelines and therefore opportunity for 
case-by-case review of new avenues of research is crucial. For 
instance, use of defective retroviruses as vectors is soon going to 
be possible but is not covered by the Revision, I trust that when 
it becomes possible, the RAC will be able to approve use of such 
[A-6] 
