Dr Emily Frost obtained her PhD from the University of Newcastle in 2021. Her PhD research, split between UON and The Francis Crick Institute UK, focused on the genetic regulation of primordial follicle activation and the essential role of the cell cycle inhibitor p27kip1 in this process. She completed one year of postdoctoral research with Prof Vince Harley at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research, working on the pathways involved in gonadal sex determination. As a postdoctoral scientist in the Oocyte Biology Research Unit at UNSW with Prof Rob Gilchrist, her research is focused on the communication between the oocyte and the surrounding cumulus cells, and the essential factors that promote oocyte maturation during folliculogenesis.