4 ‘ THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
“ y
Ay uf MADISON 6
DEPARTMENT OF MEDICAL GENETICS DEPARTMENT OF GENETICS

SCHOOL OF MEDICINE October 8, 1958 COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE
Piscce Reply To
Gchlrics BUILDING

Dr. Clifford Grobstein
Biology Department
Stanford University
Stanford, California

Dear Cliff:

!'ve been asking a number of people to advise on the “bright young men'

L of tissue genetics in this country and have rather consistently been referred
to Willys Silyers. It looks as if Av' Mitchison is not going to be interested
in our post in Genetics and we had better look closer to home. 1! would be most

anxious to know your own feelings about Silvers, partly because you should be

especially well informed, partly because his relationships with you might be

one of the vital links between Genetics and Biology. 1! would anticipate he

would continue along the lines of his more recent work with Billingham. If

you have any alternative suggestions, they would be gratefully received. The

general field of transplantation compatibility and tolerance is one we can

hardly bypass in setting up the departmental program. i

I've run into one other possibility; Leonard Herzenberg who's now in Harry
Eagle's lab and a rare bird in sharing my own predilections for setting tissue

culture on a sounder basis of origin from defined inbred strains of mice rather ™

than heterogeneous human material. 1! had in mind the possibility of a senior ‘.
fellowship rather than a staff appointment for him: do you know him at all?

\.

Needless to say the questions are at a rather delicate stage. ‘

"The favor of an early reply would be appreciated"; just annotate the en- ce

closed CC if you like.

Yours,

 
 

“Joshua Lederberg
Professor of Medical Genetics