How It Works

The Ask a Biosafety Expert (“ABE”) service operates in the following manner:

1. DIY biologists submit questions online
2. Questions are sent to a committee of volunteer biosafety experts
3. A subset of committee members will formulate a response to select questions
4. Approved responses will be published online and the submitter will be notified by email

ABE is a service offered free of charge to DIY biologists who value openness and safety.   ABE is generously supported by a grant from the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars.  Please note that we may not be able to respond to all questions submitted and other disclaimers.

Submitting contact information along with your question is optional. While the service may be used anonymously in this way, we are unable to guarantee complete anonymity. Services like Tor may improve your ability to submit questions anonymously.  To be sure, anonymity is difficult to achieve and your identity may leak in other ways (e.g. corneal reflections, textual analysis, etc) .