°/ TfTX-, 
THE ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY 
12 30 YORK AVENUE • N E W YO R K, N E W YO R K 10021 
September 11, 1978 
Dr. Donald Fredrickson, Director 
National Institutes of Health 
Bldg. 1 Rm. 124 
Bethesda, MD 20014 
Dear Dr. Fredrickson, 
Thanks for a job well done. The Proposed Revised Guidelines 
for Recombinant DNA Research are in every way a success. I am 
especially happy to see the long awaited shift of some discretion- 
ary power from the N.I.H. to the institutional biosafety committees 
Surely this arrangement will result in more efficient and studied 
management of the research, and should save those of us whose work 
falls within the scope of the Guidelines from many of the frequent 
and unnecessary delays that have fatigued us for the past two years 
Provision has been made for private industry to voluntarily 
register projects with the N.I.H. Thus the Guidelines both welcome 
industrial participation and test the argument that, if given the 
opportunity, codes of practice established by the N.I.H. will be 
incorporated without the threat of penalty for non-compliance. I 
think we will be pleasantly surprised. 
Finally I would like to applaud your attempts to draw clear 
limits on the applicability of the Guidelines — the exemption of 
experiments which involve ''naked" DNA and "rearranged" DNA. We 
finally cleared the air with regard to where justifiable safe- 
guards end. 
Sincerely , 
Michael W. Young y 
Assistant Professor of Genetics 
MWY : be 
[A-107] 
