2 
Recombinant DNA research has strong potential in medicine as well 
as in science and technology generally. In medicine it is capable of 
providing hitherto unobtainable knowledge of the organization and 
expression of genes in health and disease. It possibly may also permit 
economical production of important medicinals. Potential benefits in 
agriculture and industry include more abundant crops and synthesis of 
industrially important biochemical agents such as enzymes. 
There are risks, however, as well as potential benefits in the new 
research. For example, bacteria with transplanted genes may prove 
hazardous to man or other forms of life. Like many of the potential 
benefits, these risks remain speculative, for there is still scanty 
evidence that genes from one form of life can be expressed in any other 
form. We must assume, however, that they may be. Thus our present 
state of knowledge dictates strict controls on this form of experimentation. 
The NIH guidelines prohibit certain types of experiments — those, 
for instance, that might produce disease germs with increased resistance 
to antibiotics. Other experiments will go forward under special safety 
conditions. The guidelines have a definitive administrative framework 
for assuring that safety is an essential and integrated component of 
research involving recombinant DNA molecules. The section dealing with 
roles and responsibilities sets forth a developed review structure 
involving the principal investigator, local biohazards committees, and 
the NIH Advisory Committee, as well as peer review committees. The 
guidelines now provide extensive opportunity for advice, from the local 
to the national level. Several levels of review and scrutiny are 
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