STANFORD UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER

STANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305

DEPARTMENT OF BIOCHEMISTRY
STANFORD UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Area Code 415

321- 1200

July 14, 1970

Dear Arthur,

I was surprised when I heard fr0.m Mary that you were thinking

about the possibility of co,ming back earlier.
forward eagerly to staying in England until Septe,mber.  You know we
would love to have you back whenever you co'me, but why not take ad-
vantage of this chance while you still have it.

I thought you were looking

Tom called 'me the other day because he wanted to talk about

the work he is doing.
really quite taken by the progress he has .rna.de.
point of what he has found is that starting with the Cairns' ,mutant,  he
can isolate a DNA dependent, DNA polymerase.
triphosphates, but is not neutralized or affected in any way by the
anti-"Kornberg" polymerase.  T0.m was asking for suggestions as
to what he could do to differentiate it fr0.m the well known polymerase
activity.  It see'ms to me quite possible that he has learned how to
extract the classical polymerase from the Cairns' ,mutant in such
a way as to preserve its activity.
standard extraction procedures on the Cairns' ,mutant,  he finds no
poly,merase activities in the extract.  His activity is found only when
he breaks open the cells by his technique (pressure disruption).
has never used his extraction ,method on the wild-type to see whether
he can detect both the classical polymerase and the activity he has
studied.
there are two polymerases--one neutralizable by the anti serum,  and
the other which is not.  He can also use simple separation procedures
to determine if he can detect two types of DNA polymerase activities.
He will probably call again and I'll try and keep up with his story
as best I can.
get scooped on this and so he is working very hard and will probably
stay on in New York longer than he had originally planned.
Lehman tells me that Jerry has also found this activity (or one like
it) and has purified it extensively.  If Tom publishes this,  that will
surely give the editors of Nature a headache.
Kornberg is doing what!

I suspect he has kept you up to date,  but I was

I think the crucial

It requires all four

He told 'me that when he uses

He

I suggested that he do that and, in fact, to try to show that

Tom said that Malcolm Gefter is quite eager not to

Bob

They won't know which

    Bob Schimke has finally decided to become Head of the Depart-
,merit of Pharmacology.  I hope that this settled the situation finally.
I wish him lots of luck but he will need even 'more than that to solve
the proble,ms that have developed in that department.  In any case, I
think we can begin to 'move ahead now in our thinking about new appoint-
ments and I hope that by the fall, after you have gotten back,  we can
make so'me definite decisions.

Page Two
July 14, 1970

    We had a meeting of several hours yesterday in which we
reviewed each of the graduate students' progress during the past
year.  I think we are losing the only problem children we have and
all of us were quite happy with the progress shown by the students
who have come in the last few years.  There was unanimous feeling
that Doug Brutlag is sensational.  We had a long discussion about
the question of how long students should stay here and how we could
speed up their time in the department and we came to several de-
cisions. Starting with the incoming class, we will inform them
that we expect the normal tenure of a graduate student to be four
years and that they will not get any financial support past that point.
That feeling will also certainly be made clear to the students that
are here now and I think we are all determined to get our guys out
as soon as possible.
and I don't think it does them any good either.
a requirement that all students must submit a final version of their
thesis which is acceptable to their committee before their oral
exam.  This should prevent any case where a student feels that
the pressure is off after he has taken his oral and then he has a
relaxed interval in which to write his thesis.
at the writing phase of it for nearly seven months and now we have
to try and sweat out Larry's thesis now that he has left.
aim to allow that to happen ever again.

Lingering students create problems for us

We are also instituting

Tom Link has been

I don't

We also discussed at some length the biochemistry course

for the coming year.
Bob would agree whether he wanted to or not) about asking Bob Leh-
man to help us out by coming back in the fall to give at least some
of the carbohydrate lectures.  As expected,  he said he would if we
could arrange it so that he would not be away from home during the
Jewish holidays.
in the middle of his lecture set.
to have the protein lectures introduce the course and both Eric and
Buzz have agreed to give their lectures first.
following a brief introduction of protein structure,  Eric can talk
about hemoglobin and illustrate how changes in protein structure
can have profound effects on the activity of that protein.
by starting with something which is familiar and of immediate con-
cern to their medical inclinations (and I believe to the interests
of graduate students as well), we can make the study of protein
structure as the first item of business a more acceptable step.
will then follow with his set of 10 lectures on carbohydrates.
volunteered our services to do the last four (that is the ones on
regulation of carbohydrate metabolism and on glycogen storage
synthetase), but Bob felt that since he was going to be here anyway,
the additional four lectures would be no difficulty.
to line up the remainder of the schedule and should have that in final
form by the time you arrive.  You had suggested several lectures on
nutritional themes.  Do you have any suggestions of people who could
do a good job in that area?

As you know, I felt very bad (because I knew

As it turned out, both of the holidays came smack

To get around that,  we have decided

We are hoping that

Perhaps

Bob

I had

We are trying

Page Three
July 14, 1970

By now, I guess, Arnold Burgen is back in Ca.mbridge and
                     What little we did see of htm

he can tell you about his stay here.
was ,most enjoyable and I am sure his lab ,must be an active one.

I am not privy to much of the discussions going on about

a replacement for Pitzer but I gather that Lyman is still the leading
candidate.
can only hope that if he is to become the president, they decide that
quickly and before the school year starts.
divorced himself from the Dean's Search Committee. As a conse-
quence, Lyman will have to become involved,  but in his current
status, it is not clear how much negotiating he can do with any can-
didate we recommend.  We are prepared to invite Bob Cook back
for a second serious visit and during that time,  he will have to have
access to some official who speaks for the University and is in a
position to negotiate with him.
the trustees that this phase of the search should go ahead and that
they are prepared to back an appointment of dean even if the president
has not yet been designated.
decision without knowing who the president would be?

As you know, he has been made acting president and I

                  Pitzer has essentially

I believe we have an agreement from

But, would Cook be willing to make a

Bill Folk is in the process of trying to collect a thesis reading

co.mmittee.
as on the oral exa,mining committee.
in late Septe.mber or October.
equally important, I think you would be a good influence in both capaci-
ties.

I hope that you would be willing to serve on that as well
              These will co'me up so'me time
          I thought you would be interested,  but

    I hope that Sylvy is enjoying the stay in Ca.mbridge.
such a ,marvelous place when there are no other pressing activities
going on.  I a'm afraid 'my selection of a dress for Millie at Donald
Davies (I also bought her a shirt at the Donald Davies store in London)
was not a big hit--we have returned the.m both.
there will be any difficulty in getting a refund.

It seems

I don't suspect that

That's all for now.

I will write to you again when there is

'more news to send.

Best re gar ds ,

Paul Berg

PB/i