Brigham and Women’s Hospital 
A Teaching Affiliate of Harvard Medical School 
75 Francis Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02115 
(617) 732- 
January 14, 1983 
William J. Gartland, Jr., Ph.D. 
Office of Recombinant DNA Activities 
National Institutes of Health 
B1 dg . 31 , Room 4A52 
Bethesda, MD 20205 
Dear Dr. Gartland: 
During our last IBC meeting your memorandum concerning solicitation 
of comments on the revised Guidelines was discussed. Members felt that 
for Guidelines to be acceptable in the Boston area they have to meet two 
criteria. First they must not unduly interfere with the use of the tech- 
nology. User members on the committee agreed that the current Guidelines 
are a marked improvement over previous versions. Secondly, they must be 
of an acceptable level of stringency so that the city will adopt them. 
Should the latter not occur, we would again be faced with the difficult 
problem of having to use an earlier publication of the Guidelines. The 
current version of the Guidelines seems to satisfy both these require- 
ments . 
There is still some confusion among users and committee members over 
the classification of organisms. This is due in large part to an uncer- 
tainty of how to classify oncogenic viruses. Since many investigators 
are using viral vectors comprised of these viruses, we see this problem 
surface often. Currently our committee meets approximately 5-7 times 
yearly and has 15 voting members. At present the committee has the res- 
ponsibility of reviewing and overseeing the use of recombinant DNA tech- 
nology in the Harvard Medical Area, which includes several of major Harvard 
teaching hospitals. A number of committee members have been selected for 
their knowledge in the areas of microbiology and infectious disease so that 
these aspects are always carefully addressed in proposal reviews. Exper- 
ience has taught us that due to the volume of recombinant experiments and 
the heightened awareness regarding this technology, our committee is not 
able to take on any additional activities such as work with infectious 
agents. However, we agree that such expanded activities are a natural pro- 
gression for most IBC's. 
Thank you for the opportunity to comment. 
Si ncer§J y 
Dr/ Thomas F. O'Brien, Chairman 
Committee on Recombinant DNA 
Boston Hospital for Women/Peter Bent Brigham Hospital/Robert B. Brigham Hospital/Brookside Park 
Family Life Center/Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center/Peter Bent Brigham School of Nursing 
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