STANFORD UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
STANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305

DEPARTMENT OF BIOCHEMISTRY ARTHUR KORNBERG

Emma Pfeiffer Merner
Professor of Biochemistry

August 17, 1972

Dr. John F. Herndon
Medical-Scientific Director
National Cystic Fibrosis
Research Foundation
3379 Peachtree Road, N.E.
Atlanta, Georgia 30326

Dear John,

Iam responding to your request for my reactions to
the Israeli Cystic Fibrosis Genetic World Conference in Rehovot
last month. I am eager to do so and should have taken the initiative
earlier.

To begin with I want to express my deep gratitude to youand to
Mrs. Zaslow for all the work you did in raising the money, making
the arrangements and generating enthusiasm for this meeting. I
believe your efforts will be rewarded with an increased awareness
on the part of the basic scientists of the specific problems of cystic
fibrosis and of current questions in biochemistry and genetics on
the part of the clinicians. How can we evaluate quantitatively whether
the amount of "increased awareness" has paid for all the money and
hours invested in the Conference? Of course we can't, but I would
judge the investment will yield long-term dividends that we don't
foresee or anticipate.

I came away from the Conference with the impression
that the clinicians are doing a superb job in treating the patients.
They are doing it with skill and compassion. Their investigative work
has sharpened the diagnosis, reduced the confusion of secondary or
unrelated symptoms and emphasized the need for learning the primary
molecular defects. This is where the buck must stop:

I believe the Conference taught us the urgency for resolving
the biochemical components of electrolyte passage through cell mem-
branes and the sweat glands in particular. We must isolate and com-
pare the membrane-bound Na*-dependent ATPase, for example, from
different tissues of normal and diseased persons. If the defect is
not in this enzyme it may prove to be ina related one. The very
search, even if unsuccessful, will sharpen our techniques and our
focus, for the next assault on the problem.
Dr. John F. Herndon
Page Two
August 17, 1972

The Conference generated some debate regarding priori-
ties for research on Cystic Fibrosis. Such debate is inevitable among
investigators who have compassion for the suffering of the victims
and an awareness of how remote we seem to be from basic answers.
Yet, our response must be firm. We must do both kinds of research
vigorously. The more elusive the molecular understanding of the
disease, the sooner and more vigorously we must work to acquire
the information. We dare not gamble on windfalls and being "lucky".

A secondary aspect of the Conference in Rehovot deserves
comment. It was inspirational to be at the Weizmann Institute and
to see the dedication to science and human welfare. To those of us
who know the Weizmann Institute, this feeling is reinforced. For
those at the Conference who came to the Institute for the first time
(Professor I. R. Lehman, for example), the impact was enormous.

The rather unstructured and unconventional organization
of the details of the Conference may have made some people uneasy
or unhappy. However, the basic purposes, which Iam sure guided
your decision to organize it, were amply fulfilled.

With kindest regards,

Sincerely,

—

(Thos
Arthur Kornberg

AK/i

bee: J. Lederberg ~~