Health, and the Director, NIH, "concerning a program for the evaluation 
of potential biological and ecological hazards of DNA recombinants of 
various types, for developing procedures which will minimize the 
spreads of such me lecules within human and other populations, and for 
devising guidelines to be followed by investigators working with 
potentially hazardous recombinants." 
At its first meeting, the Committee recommended that the NIH use the 
recommendations of the Asilomar Conference as guidelines for research 
until it had an opportunity to elaborate more specific guidelines. 
May-December 1975 RAC FORMULATES PROPOSED GUIDELINES 
In three subsequent meetings, the RAC compiled three versions of 
draft guidelines. At the last meeting, the Committee went through these, 
voting item-by-item for their preference among these three variations 
and, in many cases, adding new material. The result was the "Proposed 
Guidelines for Research Involving Recombinant DNA Molecules." These 
several meetings during which the Advisory Committee developed its 
proposed Guidelines were announced in the Federal Regi ster and were 
open to the publi'.. The RAC-proposed Guidelines were presented to the 
Director, NIH, in January 1976. 
MAJOR EVENTS: 1976 
February 9-10, 1976 SPECIAL SESSION: NIH DIRECTOR'S ADVISORY 
COMMITTEE (DAC) 
A special public meeting of the Advisory Committee to the Director, 
NIH, augmented with former Committee members and other scientific and 
public representatives, was convened to review the RAC-proposed Guide- 
lines. Tne comments received from Committee members and public 
witnesses — which represented a wide range of views — were later considered 
by the RAC in April 1976. Additional meetings were held in the Spring 
of 1976 to exchange information with representatives from other Federal 
agencies, private industry, and congressional staffs. 
June 23, 1976 GUIDELINES ISSUED (PUBLISHED IN FEDERAL REGISTER , 
JULY 7, 1976) 
These Guidelines replaced the recommendations from the 1975 Asilomar 
Conference, governing research at laboratories of NIH and of its 
grantees and contractors. Accompanying the Guidelines was a document 
describing the diverse issues which the Director, NIH considered in 
reaching the decision to issue the Guidelines. This decision was 
developed in the light of many expert judgments and was based upon 
documents and correspondence contained in the decision statement. 
[ 602 ] 
