PHYSICIANS NEWS SERVICE, ino.

130 East 59th Street, New York 22, N. ¥. : PLaza 9-6300

 

February 19, 1959

Dr. Joshua Lederberg

Department of Biochemical Genetics

Stanford University ——<=
Stanford, California

Dear Dr. Lederberg:

SCOPE Weekly, a medical newspaper published for the medical profession, is
preparing a series of articles on the clinical implications of biochemical genetics
with particular reference to the work carried out by yourself, Dr. Tatum and Dr.
Beadle.

I have been fortunate enough to secure the cooperation of Dr. Tatum whom I
have interviewed twice and who has agreed to go over the series for accuracy.

I am hopeful that you will find it possible to dictate a few words as to the
medical potentialities of transduction. I have been intrigued by a section of Dr.
Zinder's article on your work in the November, 1958 Scientific American in which
he writes:

"It seems possible to move any heritable trait from one cell to
another by transduction. We have succeeded in transducing almost
every trait we can reliably detect by experiment, including drug
resistance, motility factors and antigenic factors."

Does this indicate anything of ultimate clinical use as to the building of
affirmative cellular characteristics as a counter to disease? Can you say any-
thing as to how transduction might concern future cancer therapy or as to any
light it may throw on the nature or mechanism of cancer?

Might I also ask if you believe that chemical intervention to correct enzyme
changes, deficiencies or cancellations as a result of genic mtation will become a
practical clinical procedure in the foreseeable future in the treatment of inher-
itable metabolic disease? Can you give any indication of the range of entities
which may be involved?

I hesitate to ask any more questions and yet I would also like to know
whether you are acquainted with any clinical work or experimentation at present
in which chemical intervention is being attempted to rectify metabolic abnormal-
ities due to enzyme change from genic mtation. For example, here in New York
City at Mount Sinai Hospital, a team headed by Dr. Milton Mendlowitz is suggesting
that hypertension may be caused by an enzyme deficiency. The deficiency of enzyme
omethyltransferase is said to permit an overproduction of the ilar ain noepinephrine,
causing blood vessels to constrict “hou resulting in h er yeneaens | (tert are bing
Srnuche to (P?ugy He ANE fer wie yan Chomacel ba fist tt on Ce

Do you know of any sind e efforts, similar at least as to chemical interven-
tion to restore metabolic balance after an enzyme change?

(Cont...)
==

If all of this represents too much of an interruption, anything you would
care to say about the possible clinical implications of biochemical genetics
would be most gratefully received. If you could send us any of your most recent
speeches or papers, we would be additionally grateful. We are interviewing Dr.
Beadle, Dr. Zinder, Dr. Mirsky, Dr. Stanley, Dr. Pauling, Dr. Muller and several
others concerning this series. Any material you send us will be submitted to you
for correction and approval.

We feel that such a series, in addition to its inherent interest and time-
liness, may also serve the purpose of further impressing upon the American Medical
community the worth of basic seience. There can be few better illustrations of
this then the work for which you and your colleagues received the Nobel Prize in
medicine. May we hope for your cooperation?

Sincerely yours,

fe Fer /O. 7 wyer

ROB:nh Richard 0. Boyer
Editorial Department