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Dr Scott Cummins
BSc (Hons) Deakin, PhD Deakin.
Position: ARC Future Fellow, Molecular and Cellular Biology
Office: I2.23A
Tel: +61 7 5456 5501
Fax: +61 7 5456 5010
Email: scummins@usc.edu.au
Teaching areas
- Molecular Biology
- Molecular Biotechnology
- Aquaculture
Research areas
- pheromone communication in molluscs
- molecular basis of reproduction in invertebrates and fish
- molecular basis of growth in molluscs
- evolutionary divergence of olfactory receptors
- neuroethology
Profile
Dr Cummins’ research is focused on decoding the molecular “toolkit” that underlies animal chemical communication systems. He has undertaken postdoctoral research within this area at The University of Texas Medical Branch and The University of Queensland, before joining USC in 2011. His multidisciplinary approach to research, which integrates genomic, proteomic, cell biology and behaviour methods, often leads to exciting outcomes that answer fundamentally important biological questions. For example, unique insights have been obtained into aquatic pheromones that influence animal behaviours such as attraction, aggression and mating.
Research projects:
- Sleeping snails: investigating hypometabolism to reveal critical factors that aid life extension. This ARC-funded project examines the apparent state of eternal dormancy which has fascinated people for hundreds of years. It explores new frontiers in life extension and snail control by defining those genes and peptides involved in the snails' natural state of hypometabolism, called estivation.
- Decoding the rules of fate, attraction and cell migration in perciform fish. This ARC-funded project is a multidisciplinary study helping to reveal the gene and protein machinery that underlie primordial germ cell migration. We use as our model the fish tilapia, which is closely related to many commercial and recreational fish, as well as pests that decimate our natural biodiversity.
- Overcoming membrane protein research roadblocks: A Queensland facility for membrane protein production and crystallisation.
- The molecular basis of reproduction in abalone and oysters.
- Investigation into the molecular basis of chemoreception in mollusc.
Publications
Many of Dr Cummins publications are available from the Coast Research Database.