February 3, 1976
Dear Dominique:
Many thanks for your letter of December 10, which, believe it or not, arrived in late January.  We are all happy to hear that our results are all in agreement.  But no clear cut pattern that would suggest a simple role for the sarc gene in normal cells has yet emerged from Daisy and Debbie's survey of cultured cells or from Tom's survey of embryos.  Sarc is simply turned on everywhere, with up to 5-fold differences among some of the samples. (Happily, globin and ovalbumin are completely off in the embryo cultures we've tested.  So the turn-on is not global.)  I will have to summarize some of this stuff for a Squaw Valley manuscript, and will consult with you at that time.  If I didn't mention it before, it does appear that sarc and RAV-0 are unlinked in normal cells, since sarc is in macros.
I'm glad to hear you're able to retain your American work ethic in the face of French mores, and that your family is doing well.
Best regards,
Harold E. Varmus, M. D.
Associate Professor
Department of Microbiology