Ssnpary 17, 1951

Dr. walda cohn
Biology Mvislon
oalr Ridge lational Laboratory
Oak Xidgs, Tanneueee

Oar heartiest Congrrrtulstions for a aa&aificic#pt piece of work.

YOU prObalGy are not aware that both Leon arts f Bad work under way with
+hilar objecrtitee, 8nd S suppose we Spigb2 feel dlaappot.llted.  However,
we are $erarainsly pleased that it was jrou an8 not anyone elm who made
this major discoterg.

Ut BBO stention, ffrrt, the *orb of thing we bate Wen doing8

I started out ram months age rlth the abjsrrtire of pnrit'ying an enap
WhlBOh ~tdl ppon ths ribumz&~~~-lindt po3yxmclrotids.  I had Wwn for
-11) ttmm of the extstaacere of an astire melease in potato extracta and
from mr sxperleace v2th %hie source started out vlth it.  f'waa able k,
enrich the nuclease aetivpd;p &mat 2ooCfold baaed on protein, lnrt the
Paarmssterase rsatirity was still high,  Our hope was that we ml@t ultimately
ba able to obtain a nonoeateram-free preparation and thus be able to
ezaain8 not only the nattvre of the monomcleotides but also look for Uw
prssenae of some enlryae-resistant polynucleotide fragment.

     Lean W&B folloving up Gulland's work wfth snab venoms and had
rcracohed a point where ye were convirmd of the absence of Eizyr activlty
in these preprations toward Myeast" aanonucleotides.  Still there was
a release by mh termmi of hr-gO par @eat SZ the nncleiu -Id phosphate
as Qx%bo phosphchte.  X mmt confers that when we had go- mer K%ein@a
data wncerning the effeetu of areenate on Rlclk hydrolya%e by alkaline
phosphatase, ore vere quite unlsprsseed by the feasibility of this method
as 8 means of achieving siappls diesteraae &&ion,

     ComernirJg our potato, nxlcleotfde pyrophorphatuse, we made
attalsrpts dxriag the par@ few years to see whether it had any effect
either on intaet =A c)r on ribormcleaae-treated Eujlll and could obsarye
none.
pau eax pat to test in aow way that we may not have thought of.

Rowever, I would be only too happy to furnish some material whicrh

wtth fond regrarda from all of us#