Beth Israel Medical Center first avenue at 16 th street, new york. ny 10003 < 212 ) 420-2000 
Dr. Rachel Levinson 
Office of Recombinant DNA 
Building 31, Room B1C34 
National Institutes of Health 
Bethesda, MD 20892 
Dear Dr. Levinson: 
I am writing in response to our recent telephone 
conversation regarding my research proposal to clone the 
determinants of vancomycin resistance. Enclosed please 
find a copy of the grant application, which was 
submitted November 1, 1988. The experiments involving 
recombinant DNA are outlined on pages 28 through 31. 
Since vancomycin resistance is intrinsically 
present in Gram negative bacteria, the Gram positive 
recipient S. sanguis is proposed as recipient. Strain 
Challis is a naturally transformable strain of low 
pathogenicity which has been used to study resistance 
and virulence factors from more pathogenic 
Streptococcaceae , including S. faecium and S. pneumoniae 
(references 53, 63, 64). I am also enclosing a recent 
reference (Leclerq, et al, NEJM 319:157-161) describing 
transformation of S. sanguis with a plasmid encoding 
vancomycin resistance. 
Please let me know if any further information would 
be helpful. Thank you. 
Division of Infectious Diseases 
(212) 420-4005 
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Recombinant DNA Research, Volume 13 
