Nature Biomedical Engineering has introduced a chatbot specifically designed to help beginners with their first experiments and to support experienced researchers in their work.

Since it was first described in Science in 2012, in the landmark paper by Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, the success of the CRISPR technique has been summed up with a handful of adjectives: cheap, precise, easy to use. But since everything is relative, it’s worth asking: how easy, and compared to what? When measured against previous genetic editing platforms, CRISPR is far simpler to apply. Whereas only a few highly specialized centers could once perform these experiments, with CRISPR a standard lab, the basic skills of an ordinary biologist, and solid familiarity with bioinformatics may be enough. Still, novices need guidance, and even seasoned researchers can run into problems.