JUN 2 1977.

May 27, 1977

Dear Dr. Lederberg,

Here I am again with another fellowship proposal, this
time for the National Institute on Aging. The NSF decided
that the study of the hormonal and experiential bases of
maternal behavior in the gerbil was not a national need or
even a national wish. Although I don't entirely blame them,
but I'm curious as to what the fellowships that did get
funded looked like. Anyway, the National Institute on Aging
actually sent out a memo soliciting fellowship proposals,
so it seemed worth looking at what had already been done
in the. area relating aging, hormonal function, and behavior.
The result, especially for female behavior, seems to be
very little.

I'm only asking for a year's funding on this proposal,
because it seems to me that the work is so preliminary that
I'm not sure in what direction I'll want to go with it
once the basic data starts coming in. It should be interesting,
though. I'm hoping that I'll be able to go on to look at
possible changes in hormone transport into the cell nucleus
and/or binding to chromatin in aging animals, since that's
a direction in which the lab is already going-—but since at .
this point we don't even know if the old rats may not be
just as capable of utilizing exogenous hormone as young ones,
I don't want to get too excited about the possibility.

For the time being, I'm trying to avoid getting involved
in doing more research, but am just trying to finish up various
teaching committments and write up all the things I should
before I get caught up in summer teaching. I finally decided
to take your advice on the dissertation, and am drafting a
short article to be submitted to Developmental Psychobiology.
I'm also working on a note for Animal Behavior and Pauline
and I are about to send out a larger article to Physiology
2

and Behavior. The gerbil maternal pheromone data is just
about ready to write up (I'd like to test another two litters
just to be sure where the phenomenon starts and ends in time) ;
I plan to send that either to Behavioral Biology or to
Hormones and Behavior. Besides the articles, I'm finishing
up a study guide to an introductory psychology text by Thompson,
McGaugh, and Nelson and am also working on another fellow-
ship proposal dealing with androgen aromatization in the rodent
brain and whether it is necessary for behavior. So I keep
busye I'd like to get all the writing out of the way at
least a couple of weeks before I start teaching in the second
summer session at the end of July, since that will run
almost to the beginning of the fall semester, or quarter,
and I'll be teaching two courses then.

I don't think I wrote you about it before, but I got
turned down a second time for Dr. Epstein's postdoc training
program in clinical genetics. I have the feeling that no
PheD. will ever go through that program unless they have an
M.D. as well. I'm still thinking about trying to get into
a clinical program, but I'm just not sure what my chances are
of getting into one. Unfortunately, I suspect that they
get worse with every year beyond the doctorate. It isn't
much help to be able to look back and see where one has made
the wrong decisions. :

I’m enclosing a note so that you can let me know that

you got this package. Since Dr. Pribram wrote a letter for
me to the Community College Credentials Committee that they
Swear they never received, I've gotten even more nervous
about communication by mail.

Sincerely,

Sara.Gerling