STANFORD UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER 
STANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305 
Stanford University School of Medicine 
Department of Medicine 
15 May 1978 
Donald S. Fredrickson, M.D. 
Director, National Institutes of Health 
Building 1, Room 124 
Bethesda, MD 20014 
Dear Don: 
Bill Gartland has suggested that I write to you again about the 
section of the revised NIH recombinant DNA guidelines that relates to 
non -E. coli K12 host-vector systems. 
I expressed my concern to you earlier (letter of November 9) about 
the wording of this section of the guidelines. Apparently, the matter 
was inadvertently omitted from the original agenda of the April advisory 
committee meeting and was again overlooked when the agenda for "late" 
items was compiled by Bill Gartland* s office. So far as I am aware, 
the matter has still not been considered by the Committee. 
My letter of April 14 outlines my concern: the authors of the 
section on non-E. coli K12 host-vector systems seem to have given little 
consideration to the development of such systems for purposes other than 
their possible use as alternatives to Eh_ coli K12 for the cloning of 
genes of higher organisms. As I noted earlier, I believe that many of 
the practical benefits of recombinant DNA will depend on the ability to 
manipulate genes within organisms that produce medically important 
products such as antibiotics, or which carry out biologically important 
processes such as photosynthesis. The development of cloning systems in 
such species is of the greatest importance. Yet, so far as I can deter- 
mine, the subject has only been considered in the most cursory way by 
the Advisory Committee. Consequently, the revised guidelines contain 
wording, which if allowed to stand, will literally preclude an entire 
area of experimentation that is of potentially great benefit and is 
widely accepted as posing little, if any, risk. 
For example, as my earlier letter to you indicated, an experiment 
involving the introduction of genes from Streptomyces coelicolor into 
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