4 
an advisory committee to draft guidelines for the conduct of this 
research. At Asilomar, temporary guidelines were issued pending 
issuance of NIH guidelines. 
In response, the NIH Recombinant Advisory Committee (formally "NIH 
Recombinant DNA Molecule Program Advisory Committee") was established in 
October 1974 to advise the Secretary of HEW, the Assistant Secretary for 
Health, and the Director of NIH to accomplish these tasks. The several 
meetings at which the Recombinant Advisory Committee developed its 
proposed guidelines in 1975 were announced in the Federal Register and 
were open to the public. The committee, after working several draft 
versions, reached agreement on a recommended revised version of proposed 
guidelines that were referred to the NIH Director for review in January 
1976. 
A special meeting of the Advisory Committee to the Director, NIH, 
was convened in February of this year to review these proposed guidelines. 
In addition to current members of the committee, a number of former 
committee members as well as other scientific and public representatives 
were invited to participate in the special February session. There was 
ample opportunity for comment and an airing of the issues, not only by 
the committee members but by public witnesses as well. All major points 
of view were broadly represented. 
The proposed guidelines were reviewed in the light of the comments 
and suggestions made by the participants at the public hearing as well 
as extensive written correspondence received after the meeting. The 
NIH has published a volume containing the transcript of the public 
hearing of the Director's Advisory Committee, all correspondence directed 
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