March 7, 1969

Dr. J. George Harrar
Preeident of tho Rockefeller Foundation
111 West 50th Street
New York, New York 10020

Dear Dr. Harrar,

   I am writing again to press you with what is now a conrete
suggestion about promoting mote innovative approaches to plant
breading.

   This is to aok your foundation people to organize a brain
storming conference on the relevance of new techniques and findings,
which include: l.aomatic call fusion (nom Dr. Hildebrandt'e article
enclosed), 2. production of haploid genotypes and their aubeequent
doubling, 3. rescuing otherwioe inviable hybrids by embryo culture
(me Brink and Cooper, Botanical Review Vol. 13, Page 423-541, 19471,
4. biochemical genetic manipulation of plant genotypes in cell culture
BuninobAA to the isolation and testing of clones, 5. the constructive
use of engineerad viruses.

   I do not neceesarily coee any panacea out of this, and I fully realize
that the teeting and validation of new genotypee is a much more costly
and laborious process than the production of new genetic variants.
The field is, however, remarkably backward overall.

-._ :
. .

   I realize that the most effective impetus to such an event would
arise if I &able to take a mre direct and personal interest in
having it come about. I would then for example attempt to document in
more detail the justification for it.         a

   I regret that I am not in a position to do this nor to take too
energetic a role in organizing cluch a conference but I would be happy
to play at least some part in it if it could be arranged to be held on
thie campus. This remark should not discourage you from proceeding in
another direction if the basic idea is a eound one. Another way to get it
going might be to ask Dr. James D. Watson in hie capacity aa director
of the Biology Laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor.

   There are, I BLPP 8wIe, at leaet a half a dozen people of great
intellectual insight who could contribute to this problem but who have
never yet given more than a moments thought to it. X would see that the

over


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program ought to start with a first phase coaslsting of a kind of
briefing, namely an attempt to lay out the basic problams in eystematic
form eo that they can be understood by good biologiste who are not
profeseional plant breeders. Even if nothing else cume out of it such
an organization of the problem would have an tiportant value of its own.

Sincerely yours,

Joshua Loderberg
Professor of Genetics

JLlrr