15 
Dr. Barkley said the CDC and the NIH will at some future time formally 
recommend to RAC that RAC consider revising the description of the P levels 
in the NIH Guidelines to correspond to the Biosafety Levels set forth in 
the document "Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories." 
As the Biosafety Levels are based on the P levels. Dr. Barkley said this 
modification would not represent a change in principle. 
Mr. Mitchell asked Dr. Barkley when the final report would be available. 
Dr. Barkley replied that the final document "Biosafety in Microbiological 
and Biomedical Laboratories" should be available before the end of the 
calendar year. 
X. CONTAINMENT TOR ONCOGENES AND RETROVIRUSES 
Dr. Gottesman began review of a request (tabs 1113, 1122, 1123) by 
Dr. Stuart Newman of the New York Medical College to consider whether 
(1) the NIH Guidelines deal adequately with experiments involving oncogenes 
(those genes capable of transforming certain types of cultured cells in 
vitro ) and retroviruses, and (2) additional risk assessment experiments in 
this area are indicated. Dr. Newman included two articles discussing 
safety issues involved in research with oncogenes. These articles are: 
(1) "Oncogenes: Implications for the Safety of Recombinant DNA 
Work" by Dr. Ditta Bartels which appeared in Search 14, 
88-92 (1983), and 
(2) "Oncogenes, Processed Genes and the Safety of Genetic Manipula- 
tion" by Drs. Ditta Bartels, Hiroto Naora and Atuhiro Sibatani 
which appeared in Trends in Biochemical Sciences , 8, 78-80 (1983). 
Dr. Newman contended these articles raise 
"new questions about the safety of laboratory work with tumorigenic 
DNA. These two papers review recent progress in our understanding 
of the nature of oncogenes and the conditions of their expression.... 
Dr. Bartels and her colleagues make a strong case, in my opinion, 
that recombinant DNA experiments with oncogene material could present 
an occupational hazard." 
One question deals with cloning in EL_ ooli K-12. Dr. Gottesman reviewed the 
risk assessment experiments performed by Drs. Malcolm Martin and Wallace 
Rowe and their colleagues (Israel et al. , Science , 203 , 883-887 (1979) and 
Chen et al. , Science , 203 , 887-892 (1979)) to determine whether viral genomes 
inserted as recombinant DNA in a prokaryotic host can cause infection or 
tumors. In these experiments, the investigators looked at the effect of 
naked polycma DNA injected into a sensitive animal, and the effects of 
feeding EL_ coli K-12 containing recombinant polyoma DNA. Tests were performed 
to detect the production of antibodies in mice or of tumors in hamsters. 
No tumors were seen when bacteria carrying the polyoma genome were injected. 
[ 199 ] 
