DEUTSCHE AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN ZU BERLIN.

FORSCHU NGSGEMEINSCHAFT DER NATURWISSENSCHAFTLICHEN/ TECH NISCHEN UND MEDIZINESCHEN INSTITUTE

INSTITUT FUR MIKROBIOLOGIE UND EXPERIMENTELLE THERAPIE- JENA

PrR PERFOR PROF. DR. WED. TAN ST KN SEL . PENA BEUTHEN BERGSTFRASSE 11
(Dr.rer.nat.habil. Udo Teubeneck)

AUG 17 1964
Professor J. LEDERBERG

Dept. of Genetics,
Stanford University

Stan-ford, California

U.S.A.
Jena, August 12, 1964
Tck/Gii

Dear Professor Lederberg,

A few weeks ago, Dr. Vernon Bryson wrote me that there might be a possibi-
lity for me to spend a period of several months to a year in the laborato-—
ries of Drs. Bryson and Werner Braun at the Institute of Microbiology of
the Rutgers University. I. would be very nappy if this could be managed

but the main problem is the fact that it will be very difficult for me

to get the consent of the German Academy of Sciences and a permission of
_the Foreign Office of the GDR. Since 1961, as you probably know, only in
quite exceptional cases one gets visa to go to a country of the western

hemisphere,

Now the head of our department told me that it might be very helpful if
I could have a few lines of you as an outstanding personality, well known
to the members of our Academy. If you could, in a short letter, support
my opinion, namely that a working period in USA would be a great advanta-
ge for my further investigations, then I could present this in addition

to my application and maybe, some difficulties could be overcome.

During the last two years, I worked mainly on lyssgeny in Proteus and its
stable L-forms. In the course of these experiments, I fcund some special
cases of defective lysogeny. In these cases the lysoyenic strains produce
solely phage tails the morphclogy of which resembles strongly that of
fT-even tails. ‘he tails are biologically active, they adsorb to sensitive
bacteria and kill them without being reproduced. Their action is therefore
somewiat similar to colicines. Under separate cover, I sent you two re ~

prints dealing with the subject mentioned,

I would like to try now, whether transformation of biochemicai warkers and

of lysogeny can be achieved with Proteus. I hope the introduction of stable

o/s
L-forms in such investigations will be an advantage. It is this kind

of experiments, which I would like to perform in New-Brunswick.

Hoping I did not trouble you too much, I an,

Singerely yours,

vbewehl

(Ud6 Taubeneck)