DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE

PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
BETHESDA, MARYLAND 20014

 

March 19, 1970

Dr. Joshua Lederberg
Professor, Department of Genetics
Stanford University School
of Medicine
Stanford Medical Center
300 Pasteur Drive
Palo Alto, California 94304

Dear Dr. Lederberg:

It would be greatly appreciated if you would give me an informal evaluation of the
enclosed proposal to use facilities and personnel at Fort Detrick to investigage the
possibility of supplying missing genetic material to victims of inborn errors of
metabolism.

As you are probably aware, serious discussions at the highest government level are
underway with the object of transferring the magnificent faéilities at Fort Detrick
to civilian operation for the improvement of the Nation's health rather than for

military purposes.

Although NIH has an urgent need for such facilities we obviously do not have the
funds available to support more than a very small part of this expensive operation.
However, if this problem is resolved there will be a need to select those projects for
which the facility is most suitable which are most likely to be of long-range benefit
to the Nation's health.

While "Genetic Engineering" has implications that go far beyond the parochial needs
of an institute devoted to neurological diseases and disorders of communication, so
many diseases involving metabolic defects strongly affect the nervous sensory and
muscular systems and thus fall within the mission of NINDS (the lipidoses, muscular
dystrophies, phenylketonuria, diabetes, etc.). Successes in treating these diseases
alone would justify the expense of such an undertaking.
Page 2 - Dr. Joshua Lederberg

| would particularly appreciate comments with regard to the feasibility of the proposal

and the qualifications of the personnel involved (if you know them) to undertake this

task,

Your opinion would, of course, be kept in the strictest confidence.
Sincerely yours, Kiel
Edward F. MacNichol, Jr., Ph.D.
Director, National Institute of
Neurological Diseases and Stroke

Enclosure

ce:
Director, IR, NINDS