Associate Professor Scott C. Schuyler

Biography

I joined the faculty at Chang Gung University in the Department of Biomedical Sciences in 2010, where our research is focused on aspects of mitotic cell cycle control and the regulation of chromosome segregation.  I have also maintained a joint-appointment at the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in the Department of Colorectal Surgery (2016-2018) and the Department of Head & Neck Surgery (2019-present).  I began teaching my English Scientific Writing course at Xiamen University in 2013 in the School of Life Sciences, and since 2016 I have been a Lecturer at the Beutler Institute.

I have had a variety of research experiences during my studies, including 3 major research experiences in my career.  I earned my undergraduate degree with honours at the University of Colorado at Boulder initially working with Prof. J. Richard McIntosh on force generation on chromosomes in mitosis and then for my thesis project working with Prof. L.A. Staehelin and Sam Levy, a post-doctoral fellow, where I performed Metropolis Monte Carlo computer simulations to model complex carbohydrates. I worked for 1 year as a research assistant with Prof. Susan K. Dutcher investigating mutant forms of algae.  During my PhD thesis work, I spent one summer at the European Molecular Biology Labs in Heidelberg Germany working with Dr. Anthony A. Hyman on mitosis and then returned to Harvard University where I completed my thesis project focused on regulation of the tubulin cytoskeleton in mitosis working with Dr. David S. Pellman at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.  During my post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University working with Prof. Andrew W. Murray I engaged in projects to investigate cell cycle regulation in mitosis and aspects of loss of cell cycle control that contribute to chromosome loss and the development of aneuploidy, a fundamental hallmark of cancer cells. 

Research

My lab at Chang Gung University is engaged in projects to investigate cell cycle regulation in mitosis and loss of cell cycle control that contributes to chromosome loss and the development of aneuploidy, a fundamental hallmark of cancer cells.  We investigate mechanisms that give rise to chromosome instability in order to identify ways we might be able to prevent cell cycle progression specifically in cancer cells.  Our recent work in pursuit of our goals has been in two areas: i) Identifying and characterizing small-molecule inhibitors of the primary mitotic cell cycle regulator the Anaphase-Promoting Complex or Cyclosome (APC/C), and ii) Investigating how damaging the mitotic spindle checkpoint can contribute to chromosome segregation defects in mitosis that induce the formation of aneuploidy.

Teaching career

I have taught a wide variety of topics at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.  My primary experience has been in teaching Cell Biology, Genetics and English Scientific Writing, as well as in leading in-depth English seminar courses to discuss in detail basic research science papers.  Upon my arrival from the USA 10 years ago, I found that the undergraduate and graduate students at Chang Gung University and Xiamen University are outstanding, with very strong basic knowledge in modern biological and biomedical sciences.  Many students can speak with me in English about their science.  However, even the best students often times have difficulty expressing themselves clearly and directly when they write about their science in English.  Because of this, I immediately created my English Scientific Writing course to help both undergraduate and graduate students improve their abilities to communicate effectively so that they can be competitive and successful within the global scientific community.