NEW ENGLAND MEDICAL CENTER HOSPITAL 
Uniting the Boston Dispensary, 
Boston Floating Hospital 
for Infants and Children, 
and Pratt Clinic-New England 
Center Hospital 
The Clinical Unit of the Tufts-New England Medical Center 
171 Harrison Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02111 Area code 617 956-5000 
August 25, 1978 
Donald S. Fredrickson, M.D. 
Director, National Institutes of Health 
Public Health Service 
Department of Health Education & Welfare 
Bethesda, Maryland 20014 
Dear Dr. Frederickson: 
I wish to comment on the Proposed Revised Guidelines for recom- 
binant DNA research issued on July 28, 1978. As you know, the issue 
of risk assessment was considered at the Falmouth Conference in June, 
1977, and as Chairman of this meeting, I had the opportunity to care- 
fully review the potential dangers of such research endeavors. The 
proceedings of the conference, which was published in the Journal of 
Infectious Disease this year, recognized that many of the earlier 
fears concerning recombinant DNA research were unfounded, based on 
new experimental evidence which had accumulated. 
It is my view that the Proposed Revised Guidelines have incorpo- 
rated the essence of the Falmouth meeting with regard to plasmid 
research, as well as other information which has become available 
concerning phage vectors. As a result, I feel that the proposed 
guidelines represent a reasonable and sound approach for future re- 
search with recombinant DNA molecules. These guidelines still recog- 
nize the areas of doubt, about which we need more information, but 
have altered in a sensible manner the requirements for experiments 
which are now considered safe to investigators and the public at 
large. For these reasons, I would lend my strong support to accep- 
tance of this document as the policy for all NIH-supported or 
-conducted research with recombinant DNA molecules. 
Chief, Infectious Disease Section 
Professor of Medicine & Microbiology 
SLG/jel 
[A-48] 
