THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 
DEPARTMENT OP BIOPHYSICS AND THEORETICAL BIOLOGY 
CUMMINGS LIPB SCIENCB CENTER 
920 EAST 58TH STREET 
CHICAGO • ILLINOIS 60637 
Dr. Donald S. Fredrickson 
Office of the Director 
National Institutes of Health 
Bethesda, Maryland 20014 
Dear Dr. Fredrickson: 
I have read the revised NIH guidelines for recombinant 
DNA research and support their adoption. I am especially pleased 
that more responsibility has been delegated to the institutional 
biohazard committees, thereby eliminating some of the delays 
associated with recombinant DNA experiments. I am also pleased 
that self-cloning will be permitted, and that recombinant DNA 
can be returned to the organism from which it was derived. 
Although the new containment level for prokaryotes not exchanging 
DNA with E. coli , P2-EK1, is an improvement over the old designation, 
I feel that it is still overly restrictive. I do not understand 
why recombinant DNA experiments involving the cyanobacteria 
Anabaena require P2 facilities, and feel these experiments should 
be classified P1-EK1. With the exception of this minor 
reservation, however, I wholeheartedly support the adoption of 
the revised guidelines. 
August 23, 1978 
Sincerely yours 
BM:dw 
[A-39] 
