STANFORD UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
STANFORD MEDICAL CENTER
300 PASTEUR DRIVE, PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA

DEPARTMENT OF GENETICS
Professor Joshua Lederberg

June 15, 1969

Dear Ev:

Iam gled to hear that you are looking into
chlorine mutagenesis, and are as syrprised as
Iam thet this has been totally overlooked.

We: have been (thet is to say, Howard Eisenstark,
one of my graduate students has been) looking into
this also, in B. subtilis, with capricious, but
probably positive results so far. Even straight
bactericide is surprisingly variable from run to
run, end we have’clean that up before we can
be quite sure. It is clear thst radiation-resistance
among verious: strains is correlated with chlorine-
resistance.

From a policy standpoint, the important question
is residual biological actiivity of the chloramines
that ere produced by the interaction of hypochlorite
with most nitrogenous compounds. These are very
variablein stability, and not much is known about
them; so Bert Halpern is doing a fairly thorough
groundwork study on their chemistry. DNA probably
forms: N-chloro as well as 5-C-chloro derivatives |
quite readily with hypochlorite, andtheoretically
should do the same at lower rates with: chloramine;
but this still has to: be estailished.

Marguerite is sorry that our change of plans
will keep her from seeing you this trip; but I
will enjoy seeing Hi myself, in Washington on
Thursday+Friday. We will. have to postpone a night
out together; which was much fun the last time.

All. the best

 
   

Lr. Josepn P. KENNepy, Jr. Lazonatories FoRAMOLECULAR MEDICINE
dedicated to the study of menta! retardation

Molecular Biology Heredity Neurobiology Developmental Medicine