August 22, 1969

Dr. Klaus Mampell

International R & D Incorporated
3 Neukoeliner Strasse

6200 Wiesbaden - West Germany

Dear Dr. Mampell,

Thank you for your letter of August 4th and the suggestion
about supporting research on microbial strains to eliminate toxic
odes. I do not think this is an area that we can get into but I

y make some inquirges among some of my colleagues and if they are
interested they will contact you directly.

I think you might also find it worthwhile to contact
Dr. Jospph Lein at the Bristol Laboratories, Syracuse, New York
since they have established excellent contractual relationships
with a number of Japanese microbiological laboratories who may be
very well equipped to this kind of work.

May I also make a brief technical suggestion namely that the
search for tolerant organisms concentrate on the enrichment of
naturally occurring forms, for example in dye-contaminatédgponds
rather than start ab initio with the prospects of selecting
degradatéte mutants.

Sincerely yours,

Joshua Lederberg
Professor of Genetics

JL/rr

Tad My W