30 
In addition, it was agreed by Dr. Szybalski of the committee at the 
University of Wisconsin, to provide a similar service for bacteriophages as 
these may be developed in relation to this program. 
It was widely felt by members of the committee that there were people 
working in this field who had in their education somehow or other avoided 
taking a course in medical bacteriology, and who therefore might not be 
aware of the practices which are dictated by good bacteriological technique 
to prevent unnecessary spills and accidents. 
The National Cancer Institute has, in the past, provided short courses 
at various centers throughout the country which at that time were directed 
toward people who worked with cancer-producing, so-called oncogenic viruses 
It was agreed by Dr. Barkley that based on this experience, additional 
courses would be made available to people working in the field of recom- 
binant molecules so that they might avail themselves of necessary bacterio- 
logical technique. 
The committee also directed that certain studies be made by members 
and reported to the committee. The first of these, which unfortunately by 
oversight was not included in your brown books, was a study by Dr. Stanley 
Falkaw of the University of Washington, Seattle, on the ecology of E^. coli . 
Since it was clear from all early deliberations that this was a favored or- 
ganism for this kind of study, it became important to collect in one place 
a substantial fraction of all that is known about the relationship of this 
organism to its environment, which includes Homo sapiens . Such a study was 
completed, and has been distributed. 
In addition, a second contender, which will be mentioned later on, I 
am sure, for the position of a favored bacterial host was Bacillus subtilis 
an organism which has no intimate ecological contact with man, and there- 
fore was considered to be perhaps less hazardous, only unfortunately, less 
well studied. 
The committee has supplies us with a report on the present state of 
knowledge of Bacillus subtilis , which you will find under Tab G in your 
brown books, as Appendix A. 
In addition, a study was made by Dr. Rowe of the National Institute of 
Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of our committee, of the uses 
of the polyoma virus, this being a mammalian virus which seemed to be the 
most likely contender for the honor of being first incorporated into the 
DNA of some other microorganism. 
In addition to these papers, a meeting was sponsored by a member of 
our committee. Dr. Helinski, which immediately preceded the La Jolla De- 
cember 4th and 5th meeting of our committee. The name of this workshop 
was Design and Testing of Safer Prokaryote Vehicles and Bacterial Hosts for 
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