Creativity in the BioFoundry: Supporting scientific creativity in the age of automation

2026-06-08

AI Summary

This study investigates how automated biofoundries not only enhance experimental efficiency but also fundamentally reshape scientists’ creative practices. Through in-depth interviews with nine experts from academia and industry, the research positions biofoundries as creativity support systems rather than mere automation factories. Drawing on human-computer interaction (HCI) theory and employing qualitative methods, the work reveals how automation transforms researchers’ cognitive and collaborative processes in fault identification, decision-making, learning from failure, and advancing successful outcomes. The findings elucidate shifts in sensory cue acquisition, human-machine responsibility allocation, and troubleshooting mechanisms, offering both theoretical grounding and practical guidance for designing next-generation automated systems that actively support scientific creativity.

Abstract

Biofoundries automate biological experimentation at unprecedented scale, promising speed, reproducibility, and access. Yet automation also reshapes how scientists experience experimentation and creativity. Through in-depth interviews with nine scientists and experts across academia and industry (including biofoundry developers, automation engineers, and end-users), we examine how scientific creativity is enacted under automation. Biofoundries displace sensory cues, redistribute responsibility between humans and machines, and transform troubleshooting from an embodied, local practice into a predictive, social, and interpretive one. Rather than framing biofoundries as automation factories, we argue that they should be understood as Creativity Support Tools, whose design directly shapes how researchers notice breakdowns, exercise judgment, learn from failure, and progress through success. By connecting biofoundry practice with prior HCI work on automation, debugging, and distributed creativity, this paper demonstrates biofoundries as a distinctive and timely site for creativity research in science.

Problem

• scientific creativity
• automation
• biofoundry
• human-machine interaction
• experimental practice

Innovation

• biofoundry
• scientific creativity
• automation
• creativity support tools
• distributed cognition