APRIL 27-28-MINUTES OF MEETING 
2 
The following liaison representatives were present : 
Dr. George Duda, Department of Energy; Dr. Richard Hedrich, National 
Endowment for the Humanities; Dr. Herman Lewis, National Science 
Foundation; Dr. Daniel Weiss, National Academy of Sciences. 
Others in attendance for all or part of the meeting were : 
Dr. Giorgio Bemardi, National Research Center, Paris; Dr. John Baxter, 
University of California, San Francisco; Dr. Naum Bers, Rockville, Maryland; 
Dr. Paul Burnett, Eli Lilly Research Laboratories; Mr. Rick Curtin, 
JRB Associates; Dr. T. A. Fraser, Upjohn Research Laboratories; Dr. Denise 
Friello, GE Research and Development; Ms. Edith Godette, OSHA; Mr. Sandy 
Grimwade, Nature; Mr. Robert M. Hering, The Blue Sheet; Dr. George E. 
Holmes, Howard University; Dr. Paul Hung, Abbott Laboratories; Dr. Marilyn 
Hutchinson, NIOSH; Dr. R. P. Kahn, APHIS, USDA; Dr. P. J. Laipis, University 
of Florida; Dr. Louis LaMotte, Jr., Center for Disease Control; Dr. Paul 
Lovette, University of Maryland; Ms. Kathy Majerus, OSHA; Dr. James McCullough, 
Library of Congress; Mr. Richard Riseberg, Office of the General Counsel, HEW; 
Dr. Waclaw Szybalski, University of Wisconsin; Mr. G. Tenenbaum, Brandeis 
University; Dr. Charles Weiner, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; 
Dr. Susan Wright, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Dr. R. S. Young, NASA. 
I. CALL TO ORDER AND OPENING REMARKS 
Dr. Stetten called the meeting to order at 9 a.m., April 27. He 
introduced Dr. Donald Fredrickson, Director, NIH. Dr. Fredrickson 
summarized the activities at NIH since the current version of the Guidelines 
for Recombinant ENA Research was issued in June 1976. He stated that he 
was convinced that through the process used to release the Guidelines 
and publication of the Environmental Impact Statement the public had con- 
siderable input into the development of standards for reccmbinant DNA 
research. He also stated that specialists in a variety of disciplines 
had carefully scrutinized the premises on which the Guidelines were 
based . 
Dr. Fredrickson went on to list the conclusions that had been drawn 
concerning recombinant DNA research. There is no evidence to date that 
manipulations of reccmbinant DNA molecules yield any harmful products. 
Additionally, there is no evidence, since the publication of the Guidelines 
in 1976, to indicate that the probability of harm is likely. The results 
of the Falmouth conference on Risk Assessment of Reccmbinant DNA Exper- 
imentation with Escherichia coli K-12 [Executive Secretary's Note: See 
journal of Infectious Diseases 137 , 609-714 [1978)] indicate that EL coli 
K-12 cannot be converted to an epidemic pathogen. Scientists attending 
the U.S. - EMBO Workshop to Assess Risks for Reccmbinant DNA Experiments 
Involving the Genomes of Animal , Plant , and Insect Viruses (Federal 
Register, 43, 13748 ( 1978 ) ) concluded that viral gencmes or fragments 
thereof cloned in E. coli K-12 using approved plasmid or phage vectors 
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