pobebdrn

December 9, 1957

Frofessor George Kiein
Department of Tumor Biology
Karolinska Institutet
Stockholm 60, Sweden

Dear George:
To yours of the 28th¢

I am sorry to hear thet Hayes will not be on the programs perhaps
he might change his mind at the last minute, However, the other group
will make a very acceptable discussion panel,

Frankly I am a little bit peeved about having put Szy>alski on
the list under the present circumstances, I foresee nothing but bore-
dom at the very best, Frankly he has been a rather disrurtive and un=
productive influence in genetics in this country. If you want to see
wheat I am driving at, you might look at the article by the Japanese
workers in the June, 1957, issue of the Journal of Bacteriology, 1
am a little afraid that he might use the occasion of the symposium for
sone similar nonsense, which under the circumstances wircht waste as
many more nan months ae have been spent cleaning up his sloppy work in
this particular subject just referred to, He is, however, a very
affable fellow and one hates to do anything that would offer him the
least personal offense,

I think it would be delightful to have a set of diseussarts who
would actually discuss the parers being presented, This is another
reason thet Szybalskid dosen't quite fit, It would oe quite aprrorriate
if the discussants could have at least a general abstract of what the
principal speakers would be teljping about #0 they can frame advance
questions, However I hope it would be most clearly uncerstood that the
discussion program shall not be used as an opportunity for the presenta=
tion of further independent papers, This is a matter that can very
easily run away with itself and I tink some firmness may be necessary
in order to keep the panel on a definite course. S90 I would accept
whole-heartedly the “general standpoint from the organizing committee"
with the exception of that sentence that indicates "thet the ranel
participants can give shert accounta of such parts of their own work
that 1s pertinent to the discussion®, You know very well yourself what
will harpen if that is encouraged,
Page 2 ~ December 9, 1957

There is no point in dwelline further on the Szybalszi question
since the milk seems to have been already spilled, However, the frame+
work of the symposium can perhaps be set ur in such a manner as to male
the best of it, Since it is te last certainly not longer than three
hours and thirty minutes, there would hardly be time for one full set
of papers by the principal speakers, a set of subsidiary varers by the
secondary speakers and discussion as well,

I am still waiting to hear from my collaborator, Cus Kossal, about
the final results of our experiments on antibody formation, The tre=
liuinary experiments were most exce:tional and there is no question at
all about the applicability of the method, I hope that you will be
hearing from me further about the rossibility of some more experiments
involving the test of tumor lines for their carecity to produce antig
bodies,

vith all best regards,

Yours sincerely,

Joshua Lederberg
Frofessor of Medical Genetics

JL/ew