Concern about potential biohazards in molecular biological research was widely voiced during the early 1970s. A circular letter was sent to Kendrew in June 1974 by C. Weissmann (a cosignatory) for consideration by EMBO Council and by the PSAC and recommending that "these problems be urgently and carefully considered by appropriate EMBO bodies, both in regard to security recommendations and to providing appropriate special risk laboratories within the framework of EMBO, for instance at the Heidelberg laboratory". An Asilomar conference on rDNA was held in February 1975, attended by a five-man EMBO delegation and an ad hoc EMBO committee was set up by Council in January 1975 (Chairman: C. Weissmann). The report to EMBC on the Asilomar conference recommended that "a containment laboratory meeting the most stringent specifications . . . should be built within the European Molecular Biology Laboratory."

Folder H.100. Correspondence and papers, June-December 1974.

Folder H.101. Correspondence and papers, January 1975 - February 1976.

Folder H.102. Reports and minutes of the EMBO ad hoc and Standing Advisory Committees, 1975-1980.