Genetics

Dr Scott Andrew

BSc (Sydney University); PhD, 2002, Department of Medicine, University of Sydney.

Scott completed his PhD at the Kolling Institute of Medical Research, Sydney University where he characterised the promoter region of a proto-oncogene. He was successful in obtaining a Postdoctoral Fellowship through the Terry Fox foundation (National Cancer Institute of Canada) in 2002 and spent 4 years at Queens University, in Canada using molecular techniques to identify downstream signalling mechanisms of an oncogenic receptor tyrosine kinase. Scott returned to Australia in 2005 and carried out further postdoctoral studies at the Oncology Research Unit, Westmead Childrens’ Hospital, studying the role of focal adhesion kinase in cancer cell movement. Scott joined the School of Biomedical Sciences at Charles Sturt University, Orange in 2006, where he continues to study cancer cell biology, working alongside Dr Chris Parkinson, supervising Honours and PhD students. Scott received the NSW Science Ministers prize for medical research in 2005 and has published 27 highly cited research papers in peer reviewed journals since 1992.

Prior to joining CSU, Scott has previously taught immunology at University of Technology, Sydney. Since joining CSU, Scott has taught cell biology, biochemistry, human genetics, human nutrition and pathological basis of disease to various cohorts in Pharmacy, Dentistry, Health and Medical Science and Medicine.

Current research interests are in cancer research. This work mainly concerns investigations aimed at developing improved chemotherapy drugs, particularly targeting cancers of high metastatic potential. The high proliferative activity of cancer cells requires increased use of metals compared with normal cells. Together with Dr Chris Parkinson, we have been examining the role of metal chelators against cancer cell lines. A particular group of metal chelators called thiosemicarbazones have been used as the basis of these studies. Synthesis of derivatives of this class have led to improvements in cytotoxicity against metastatic cancer cell lines and reduced toxicity against normal human cell lines. Funding has supported this work since 2015 and has led to eight successfully completed Honours projects and three PhD projects and seven highly cited research papers.