Agilent Technologies and Pacific Laboratory Products form a strategic partnership
Agilent Technologies has announced a strategic partnership with Pacific Laboratory Products in Australia to provide best-in-class technical support and efficient delivery for the entire range of Agilent chromatography columns and supplies products. Read more »
Mathematical innovation turns blood draw into information goldmine in Stanford study
Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have devised a software algorithm that could enable a common laboratory device to virtually separate a whole-blood sample into its different cell types and detect medically important gene-activity changes specific to any one of those cell types. Read more »
Detecting fish disease
A new test is available for the nervous necrosis virus - a serious disease affecting more than 35 species of fish worldwide. The new PCR method was first achieved through research and development funded by the Australian Research Council at the University of Sydney. Read more »
New in vitro diagnostic regulations legislated
The regulation of in vitro diagnostics in Australia will undergo significant change as pre-market regulatory approval and inclusion on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods is required for IVD devices under the new regulatory scheme, which comes into force on 1 July 2010. Read more »
Monash University researchers cotton on to lab-on-a-chip enhancement
A discovery by Monash University scientists could see humble cotton thread emerge as a core material in low-cost ‘lab-on-chip’ devices capable of detecting diseases such as kidney failure and diabetes. Read more »
Comments sought on $52m research collaboration program
The federal government has released a discussion paper on the Collaborative Research Networks (CRN) program - the first of its kind in Australia - which will provide $52 million from 2011 to promote mutually beneficial collaboration between universities. Read more »
$38m to get new technologies working for Australia
The National Enabling Technologies Strategy has been released. The strategy provides a comprehensive national framework to guide the development of new technologies. Read more »
New invention set to unlock environmental secrets
IRMS++, invented by Dr Mike Hotchkis and Dr Chris Waring at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, uses a newly developed, patented microwave-driven plasma source to generate large signals directly from very small volumes of liquid or gas for measurement of their isotopic composition. Read more »
Nanomagnetics enhances green chemistry
McGill University researchers have developed a nanotech catalyst which uses magnetics that may reduce the need for heavy metals in processes. Read more »
Waters to supply Daiso bulk process chromatography media
Waters and Daiso have entered into a collaborative agreement to globally market and supply Daisogel bulk packing materials for process chromatography. Read more »
Research funding implications from UWA intellectual property case
Universities may have less money to fund research and may be less able to provide the expensive infrastructure that researchers require to undertake their research as a result of the outcome of a court case over intellectual property rights, according to Professor Alan Robson, Vice-Chancellor of The University of Western Australia. Read more »
Miniature GC for environmental testing
Dolomite has used microfluidic miniaturisation to produce portable, robust and low-power GC systems suitable for environmental applications such as atmospheric monitoring. Read more »
Australian blood ‘biobank’ launches
The ASPREE Healthy Ageing Biobank Cluster will establish a 'biobank' of blood samples collected from over 10,000 healthy elderly Australians. The collaborative research cluster will focus on establishing the biobank samples to be used in advancing research into the prediction and early diagnosis of diseases such as Alzheimer’s and cancer. Read more »
Science, art and epilepsy
SymbioticA, the art and science collaborative research laboratory at The University of Western Australia, has been awarded first place in the international VIDA 12.0 competition, which recognises excellence in artistic creativity using new technologies and artificial life. Read more »
Antibodies implicated in severe dengue virus-induced disease
The La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology has validated the longheld theory that antibodies actually contribute to severe dengue virus-induced disease. Read more »
Qiagen and Celera establish distribution agreement for respiratory pathogen panel
Qiagen is to distribute a Celera molecular multiplex assay for detection of respiratory pathogens. Read more »
Molecular causes of genetic diseases
A new study using bioinformatics, led by scientists at the Buck Institute for Age Research, reports the ability to predict the molecular cause of many inherited genetic diseases. These predictions involve tens of thousands of genetic disease-causing mutations and have led to the creation of a web-based tool available to academic researchers who study disease. Read more »
Chemistry and computers combine for forensic identification
Researchers at The University of Western Australia and the WA Police Service are part of an international team awarded an Australia Research Council Discovery grant of more than $400,000 to revolutionise the identification of skeletal remains by updating and combining new computer and chemical methods. Read more »
Harmonised classification and labelling for three chemical substances
Indium phosphide, di-tert-butyl peroxide and trixylyl phosphate have been looked at by the Committee for Risk Assessment (RAC) of ECHA (European Chemicals Agency in Helsinki). Read more »
Computing in a backwards world
Dr Owen Maroney claims we can remember in a reversed universe and it's all to do with the heat coming from your computer. Read more »