May 29, 1942
Dr. Frank Blair Hanson
The Rockefeller Foundation
49 West 49th Street
New York, New York
Dear Dr. Hanson:
I am very pleased indeed that the officers of the Rockefeller Foundation have found
it possible to act favorably on my application for an additional appropriation during
the coming year for support of our researches in the field of immunology.
I am now working on the problem of increasing our staff of research fellows and assistants.
Dr. Dan Campbell, who in March returned to the University of Chicago to give lectures
in immunology, will be back in Pasadena on July 1, with the title of Assistant Professor
of Immunochemistry. Dr. David Pressman will continue as the principal organic chemist
of the group, and I hope that one more senior investigator can be appointed. We are
having no difficulty in finding suitable younger people as assistants.
You know that the Committee on Medical Research has expressed its interest in the
work. With this sponsorship, we shall, I think, not find it necessary during the year
to curtail our program of immunochemical research because of the war situation. Although
the chances that our work on artificial antibodies will lead to results of practical
value in the immediate future are not great, there does exist some possibility that
the researches will have practical application.
The Committee on Medical Research has given us a small contract for a program of research
on the chemical treatment of protein solutions in the attempt to find a substitute
for human serum for transfusion. This work is of course somewhat related to our programs
of research in immunochemistry, but it represents an off-shoot which we would not
have thought of following except for the demand for serum substitutes caused by the
war. The personnel under this contract will be entirely separate from that of the
immunochemistry program, except that it is expected that Dr. Campbell and Dr. Pressman
will be called on to give advice occasionally in connection with the transfusion work.
Later in the summer I shall make you a report on the progress of the immunochemistry
program. There are so many interesting things to be done that we are having trouble
in carrying separate researches to completion.
Sincerely yours,
Linus Pauling
