535 Arastradero Ad.
Palo Alto,Calif,

Augsl,1960
Dear Hr, Waterman,

I learnt of the news which were given an Ghecical and fupineerliy lows,
and whloh are essentially correct, snortly after coaing here,t as sorry the nowspapereen
arrived first in letting you know theap and I shall try to give as full a pictures of AL
agikican form at present,

As you may remember, Joshua Lederberg accepted our invitation to serve
asiconmultant for the Pavia group,on the understanding that, he could continue to conmilt
withother concerns on subjects different frou. those that we, can daal ef@sctively at
Pavia, Zhere was no reason to worry(espeoially: dn gituations like the presant one,in which
the arses of Anterest of Interist and Syntax do not. overlpp)also because wa neve gafficient
‘knowledge of Joshua's loyalty to think that, should an overlap Ariss, and make the aitxiation
diffioukt or eorifuse,be would have dealt with it in all faicnoss. |

On the arrival ‘of your leteer,] have rediscussed the whole problez with.
Joshua,and I think it is clear ‘to him and ayself that there ta no conflict botueen his txo
consulting activities. On the contrary,we had fust been discussing prior to this sone de-
velopnents which I think it well worth to pursue.

As to the amount of ailk. spilt, therefore, there 4a or thers shovid be
none, Lf: wa consider the original agreesant was. to consult on ous own work ab Favia. In
the course of cur sonvergation on this tople,howewss,. Joshua offered to resign froa his
agreegent with us,if we felt this was the right thing to do Naturally ,in such a casa tha
amount of spilling would be complote. /

“If you werexthinking,on the other hand,en tha possibility of more oxLane
alive collaboration with Lederverg, sepecially xith a view to your proposed California Labo~
ratory,than the altuation is different. Dut even perhaps if there had been suffielens.
warning of possibile developments coth of Schering and of Syntex 4n Califomia,it a,b
have been difficult to avoid the present gtand of things. Then playhed Jyntex Resaarch
Institute at Palo Alto 4s sonewhat revolutionary (and its outedae is naturally ,unprsdic-
table to a corresponding degree). Its origin is largely coreelated,I think,with the facs
that Dr Djerassi) has taken a chair at Stanford,which will becoxze effective as of saptonier,

1960.
. The staff of the Listitute will be made up of one or at nost (wo indepen-
dent research workers in each of the fields mentioned in the article. Joshua tells me con-
fidentially that it will be devoted to fundasental studies in synthetis organic chemistr;
and blocbenistry of nucleic acids,a field very close to his om research FRaotical appli-
cations are hoped for as an ultinate byproduct ,but are not expected to becone a reality
for many years. You will notice,also fron the announeed composition of the stafr,that ine
Palo Alto Institute has a different setup froa the one we have at Favia,which is sone
guarantee of non-interference, and that mierobiclozys haa ng pert h At ,espectallyas far
as antibiotics are concerned.

. In sameary, I believe that we should ve able to keap fully the verefit
‘of advice from Or.lederberg,at least in the lines of work with which we are sore prepared
te deal at Pavia. I hope this will pound ag acceptable to youas it scunds to se,ard an
anxious ‘to know your reactions.

With bestppersonal regards,

Yours sincerely

(L.L.Cavalli-Sforea)