November 22, 1961
Dear Dr. Schramm:
I read your synthetic procedure for obtaining deoxypolynucleotides with great interest.  I very much would like to get or make 2 to 5 mg of deoxypoly A, deoxypoly T, deoxypoly C, deoxypoly G, and also mixed polymers.  I am interested primarily in cell-free protein synthesis from an enzymatic point of view.  Recently we found that polyribo U served as a synthetic messenger RNA which directed the synthesis of polyphenylalanine in a cell-free system.  I am enclosing reprints of this work which describe these experiments in detail.  I would like to use the deoxypolynucleotides in this work for I feel certain that some will work in our enzymatic system.  I would be glad to collaborate with you, if you would like to, on aspects of our work dealing with these polymers.  Certainly they would have a great deal of potential in our cell-free system.  Such a collaborative effort could yield important results in a short time.
I would be glad to either synthesize the polymers if you would send me the detailed protocol, or to receive the polymers from you.
Looking forward to hearing from you, I remain,
Sincerely yours,
Marshall W. Nirenberg