Emma Frow

About

Emma Frow is an Associate Professor at Arizona State University, holding a joint appointment with the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and the School of Biological & Health Systems Engineering. She joined ASU in 2015 and focuses her research on the governance of emerging biotechnologies, particularly the governance of the STEM research community. Emma has been engaged with the synthetic biology community in the US and Europe since 2008. Her academic background includes a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Cambridge, followed by a transition to social sciences with a master's degree in science and technology studies from the University of Edinburgh. She completed postdoctoral research at the ESRC Genomics Policy & Research Forum at the University of Edinburgh and at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Prior to her appointment at ASU, she was an assistant professor in science, technology, and innovation studies at the University of Edinburgh. Emma Frow's research explores the intersections of science and technology studies, sociology of science, engineering studies, and the governance of emerging technologies such as synthetic biology. Her work addresses themes of expertise, interdisciplinarity, values, and representation in scientific practice. She collaborates on projects investigating synthetic cells and engineered control of DNA replication, funded by the National Science Foundation. Her research also examines care and control in bioengineering,…

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Business
• Political Science
• Marketing
• Knowledge management
• Systems engineering
• World Wide Web
• Data science
• Biology
• Public relations

Selected publications

• Five rules of thumb for post-ELSI interdisciplinary collaborations

  Journal of Responsible Innovation · 2016-01-02 · 105 citations

  articleOpen access

  In this paper we identify five rules of thumb for interdisciplinary collaboration across the natural and social sciences. We link these to efforts to move away from the ‘ethical, legal and social issues’ framework of interdisciplinarity and towards a post-ELSI collaborative space. It is in trying to open up such a space that we identify the need for: collaborative experimentation, taking risks, collaborative reflexivity, opening-up discussions of unshared goals and neighbourliness.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Building a biofoundry

  Synthetic Biology · 2020 · 84 citations

  A biofoundry provides automation and analytics infrastructure to support the engineering of biological systems. It allows scientists to perform synthetic biology and aligned experimentation on a high-throughput scale, massively increasing the solution space that can be examined for any given problem or question. However, establishing a biofoundry is a challenging undertaking, with numerous technical and operational considerations that must be addressed. Using collated learnings, here we outline…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A roadmap for gene drives: using institutional analysis and development to frame research needs and governance in a systems context

  Journal of Responsible Innovation · 2017-12-21 · 54 citations

  articleOpen access

  The deployment of gene drives is emerging as an alternative for protecting endangered species, controlling agricultural pests, and reducing vector-borne diseases. This paper reports on a workshop held in February 2016 to explore the complex intersection of political, economic, ethical, and ecological risk issues associated with gene drives. Workshop participants were encouraged to use systems thinking and mapping to describe the connections among social, policy, economic, and ecological variable…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A bumpy road ahead for genetic biocontainment

  Nature Communications · 2024-01-20 · 47 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  While the research community continues to develop novel proposals for intrinsic biocontainment of genetically engineered organisms, translation to real-world deployment faces several challenges.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• ‘Mapping research and governance needs for gene drives’

  Journal of Responsible Innovation · 2018-01-05 · 26 citations

  articleOpen access

  KEYWORDS: Gene drivebiotechnologysynthetic biologygenetic pest managementgovernance of emerging technologies

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Toward lifelike synthetic cells via engineered control of DNA replication

  NSF · $310k · 2021–2025

Frequent coauthors

• Jane Calvert

  10 shared

• David H. Guston

  Institute for the Future

  9 shared

• David J. Grainger

  6 shared

• Claudia E. Vickers

  ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology

  6 shared

• Adrian Mackenzie

  5 shared

• Caroline M. Leitschuh

  5 shared

• Fred Gould

  University of Auckland

  5 shared

• Michael R. Caplan

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  5 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Biochemistry

  University of Cambridge

• M.S., Science and Technology Studies

  University of Edinburgh

• B.A., Natural Sciences (Neuroscience)

  University of Cambridge

Awards & honors

• Reconfiguring Life: Care and Control in Bioengineering, CARE…
• European Research Council Engineering Life project (2015-202…

Similar researchers at Arizona State University

• Andrew Maynardh-51
• Itty Abrahamh-28