THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
MEDICAL SCHOOL

DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN GENETICS
1133 E. CATHERINE STREET
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN

June 25, 1969

Dr, Joshua Lederberg
Department of Genetics
Stanford University
Palo Alto, California

Dear Josh:

It's getting harder and harder to come by a good, new idea,
Beutler in 1961 attempted to reduce the tendency to sickle in
sickle cell anemics by the administration of methemoglobin-
producing drugs, He reported that it worked, but unfortunately
the drugs had side effects which made the therapy impractical,
More recently Sirs (Lancet 1:971) (1963) reported that treatment
with carbon monoxide reduced percentage of sickle cells in a
patient with sickle cell anemia from 10 to 3, However,
Puruggonan and McElfresh (Lancet 1: 79(1964) could not confirm
this in two patients, nor did they find any indication of an
improved survival time, There has to be a better way,

Best regards,

x

Cc

James V. Neel, M.D.

JUL q oe

TELEPHONE:
ANN ARBOR, 764-5490

Lee R, Dice University Professor

of Human Genetics
JVN smw