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497~5801

September 27, 1974

Dr. Orio Ciférri __
Iatituto di Genetica
Universita di Pavia
27100 Pavia, Italy

Dear Orio,

Do you remember the paper on Ribonucleic Acid=permeable Mutant of
Escherichia coli" by M. Yamamoto et al., J. Mol. Biol. 38:103, 19712

We were discussing some work in the lab on these strains mainly to
see whether it had any advantages for transfection with DNA but it does
not. But that reminded me to ask you whether you thought {ft might be worth
reviewing some of the experiments with synthetic polynucleotides on this
kind of a strain. The purpose is obviously to lay the groundwork for the
transcription of still more interesting messengers.

One way to do that would be if you could proceed with the plan to
visit our lab. We are funded well enough that I am sure that we could
Manage it any time between now and next summer. But starting in July
I hope that Vittorio may be coming back over, and if this is the case,
then I think we should be careful about not exhausting our funds at one
time and leaving others unused at another. So, what are your latest
thoughts on these questions?

Everything is going very well at home and'being a father is much
more fun than I had expected it to be, Perhaps that is partly because
Anne ia undoubtedly the most beautiful baby in the world. I know you
will not believe that but you will have to come and see for yourself,

All best wishes,

Sincerely yours,

Joshua Lederberg
Professor of Genetics

JL/rr