There are no rules regarding biological research, and each case needs to be evaluated individually. There are a number of steps in the research process where evaluation can occur, including project planning, funding application and award, institutional review, presentations at meetings, and publication. In most cases all of these steps would involve evaluation by the researchers involved and other members of the research community, not by an oversight board like the NSABB. The NSABB does not intend to consider specific experiments that could be considered dual-use, rather to put make a general framework available to researchers to assess the risks and benefits of their own work. In order for the open culture of biological research and information exchange to continue, it is important that the risks of dual-use research be acknowledged and the benefits clearly identified and properly communicated, both with editorials accompanying publication, and through the press.