Baylor College of Medicine 
DEPARTMENT OF VIROLOGY AND EPIDEMIOLOGY • 713 790-4443 
August 28, 1978 
Dr. Donald S. Fredrickson 
Director 
National Institutes of Health 
Bethesda, Maryland 20014 
Dear Dr. Fredrickson: 
I have been asked to send you my opinion about the virological aspects 
of Guidelines on Recombinant DNA Research, published July 28, 1978, in the 
Federal Register. 
I am in agreement with the Report ( Appendix F of the above ) of the 
Virus Working Group which met at the NIH on April 6-7 , 1978. Because of a 
private lecture and consultation trip sponsored and paid for by the Chinese Academy 
of Medical Sciences, I regret that I could not attend the meeting of the Working 
Group mentioned above. For your interest, I visited a laboratory in Shanghai 
that was being established for Recombinant DNA work. 
As you know, 1 feel that containment is a problem that is not new to 
responsible investigators dealing with infectious diseases and their causative 
agents. There is no substitute for proper techniques, either to prevent contamination 
of the isolated agent, or to protect laboratory personnel . Perhaps all who set out to 
conduct Recombinant DNA Research should be examined and certified as qualified 
to work with infectious agents. 
The one note of caution that I would offer relates to the concept that 
organisms which carry viral DNA inserts are of no hazard to the community; while 
potential hazards remain an unlikely possibility, no definitive proof exists to rule 
them out completely. To my knowledge higher or lower animals have not yet been 
exposed to such organisms carrying viral DNA segments. Recombinant DNA could 
possess biological activity ( for example, in some cases viral DNA segments linked 
to heterologous DNA sequences can become integrated into the genome of animal cells), 
and exposure to large amounts of such material might lead to unexpected results. 
With kind regards , 
Sincerely yours 
'/Joseph L. Melnick 
(dictated but not read) Distinguished Service Professor 
TEXAS MEDICAL CENTER • HOUSTON, TEXAS 77030 
[A-57] 
