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WEL Die ry

University of Wisconsin
27 Sagtember 1952
Dr, Joshua Lederberg

WFL visited Joshua Lederberg in his laboratory in the Genetics
Department at Wisconsin in connection with his recent request for further
support for his work. In WFL's diary of 27 August 1951, a general review of
his record on the three years of grant in aid support was made with the
tentative conciusion that his record seems to be one of the best to date
for this prozran.

At the present time Dr. L's laboratory is unchanged from what it
Was two yours ogo and is rnther crowded despite its efficlent organization.
- In the next year, however, he has been ussigned extra space, but appropriately
"feels that this should become fuct before he approaches us for longer term
assistance. On tne basis of WFL's conversation with him it was decided that
it would be best to maxe a 2l-month appropriation of $8,000 to run from
Se Jaquary 1,(1951) to September i, 1953, approximately three-quarters of this
““gnount to be used for the selury of a research assistant, Mr. Pelmer D. Skaar,
who is just getting his Ph.D. with Sounebora at Indiana. The remainder of
this amount is for general expanses comiected with his research work over
this neurly 2-yeur ,eriod. In tnis coaversatioa Dr. L brought up the fact
that ne is strongly assisted by his wife, who took her ?h.D. in Wisconsin a
few years ago, having previously trained at Hunter Coilege in Botany. The
fact that she is his wife makes the subject somewhat touchy, but WFL met
her and was pleasantly impressed. Dr. L has not made any request for her¢
Salary as tecimical assistant to his program, but he did weat to know
whetier we had any ovjections to his possibly so doing two years from now.
WFL stated that we saw no reason that tuis should be an adverse factor, as
the basic mode of judgment was in selectlag a good man and backing the latter's
judgment in the matter of how he spends his avaiinble research money for
technical egsistace. ,

Dr. L has been rather successful in his search for research funds,
obtaining $1,000 from the A. &. C., now terminated; $4,300 from the U.S.P.H.5.,
‘aS well as the saiary of Mrs. Lederbor: on a Cheriical Corps. contract. In
addition to thie the W. A. R. F. makes $4,60U avaliable to him yearly. His
preseat request thorefore is uinost eitiresy reiuted to obteininy the salary
of Dr. Skuar, who wishes to sludy tie meebaulsu o. inherkunee of antljens
in bacteria.

. As WFu has visited various labor:.torles he has heard with increasing
frequency that L is reasly CLret-cluss, this opinion coming for example from
Novick and Szilard, Bernard Davis, ay weii as Burris and Wilson at Wisconsin.
He has tremeadoua enerzy and inteliigence and haus receatly, for example,
collected the basic piblications in tie Pleld of bacterial Senetics and had
tnem issued in a book by tne University of Wisconsin Press by the photostat
technique, tius makin: tnese reprints widely availsble for use {u coursos.
215.

WEL

WEL will describe only two of his experiments in detail because of
lack of space, but there is little doubt that L has about as many ideas per

minute as the Szilard and Novick team.

é. In one of these experiments he places a solution of one strain of

B. coli on one side of a cellophane membrane and another strain on the

other side. This was to test whether or not they could exchange chromosomal
material through the membrane and was negative in result. He then added
bacteriophage to one of the strains, which iysed the bacterla, whereupon
their genetic qualities passed through the membrune and were incorporated
into the other bacteriophese resistent strain. Thus, it would seem that
either szall, living "L forms" passed through the membrane, or, more probably,
that nucleo protein particles passed through, ucting much ai'ter the fashion
of Avery's "transforming substances." It is obvious tnat this is a funda-
mental experiment of great significance.

His second experiment gives ;ositive .roof in the neatest fasnion
that streptomycin resistant bacterial individuals are present in a
streytomycin susceptible strain, thus indicating that streptomycia does not
induce any mutations but ruther merely selects out those individuals which
are spontaneously resistant. The proof of this is so neat thut it is rorth
recording. First of all he srows the streptomycin susceptible strain on a
Petri dish so that they grow up in colonies. By lightly pressing a velvet
cloth onto the plate he makes a "photostat” so to speak of this first plate,
by then placing the infected growth onto a fresh retri dish. As this
second dish contains streptomycin, only those transferred colonies grow that
are resistant to this drug, which in turn tells hin which of tne colonies
on the original piate (which has never seen streptomycin) are spon taneously
resistant. Now, by using a needle point, he picks up the resistant colonies
from the original plate and thus obtains « pure culture of streptomycin
resistant bacteria that heve never in the course of their life seen or
heard of this drug, and hence were obviously originaily present in the
susceptible strein or else mutated to the resistant form quite spontaneously.

WFL has no doubte or reservations about Joshua Lederberg and
‘warmly recommends a bach-of-the-book appropriation of #3,V00 over the next
21 months. At the end of this period on appropriation of $15, 000-$20, 000
over three years would seem to be in order.