Industry News
CSIRO appoints two new chiefs
The appointments of new Chiefs to head CSIRO's Divisions of Plant Industry and Energy Technology were announced recently by CSIRO Chief Executive, Dr Geoff Garrett.
[ + ]Vision Bio takes aim at US market
Melbourne-based research instrument developer Vision BioSystems is gearing up to launch its Bond-X immunohistochemistry system in the US before the end of the year. [ + ]
Heart monitor firm USCOM launches $16m IPO
Devices company USCOM is seeking to raise AUD$16 million in an IPO to raise funds to commercialise its heart monitor. [ + ]
Primitive microbe lends a hand to high-tech crime fight
A steaming, sulphurous spring in the caldera of the world's coldest, most isolated volcano has yielded a powerful new forensic tool that will make it even tougher for criminals to evade the law. [ + ]
Cochlear hooks up with continence control company
A University of Melbourne spin-off and pioneering bionic ear company Cochlear have joined forces to develop a treatment for severe incontinence. [ + ]
Biota hot on the trail of cold cure
Melbourne drug design company Biota Holdings is preparing to sign up a partner to develop its new lead compound to quell the so-called 'common' cold. [ + ]
Metabolic launches Phase IIb trial
Melbourne-based Metabolic Pharmaceuticals (ASX:MBP) has commenced what it says is the largest clinical trial ever undertaken by an Australian biotech, a Phase IIb trial of its obesity drug, AOD9604. [ + ]
Iliad hires cancer specialist, ramps up discovery
Melbourne-based Iliad Chemicals has appointed former Cerylid Biosciences scientist Dr Gino Vairo as head of drug discovery and development as it ramps up its efforts to identify a lead candidate. [ + ]
WA's Grain Biotech's eyes up a vintage wheat crop
First there was golden rice, a genetically modified variant of the world's number two cereal, designed to prevent blindness and ill health in an estimated 400 million malnourished people in Asia and Africa, whose monotonous diet of rice leaves them vulnerable to blindness and ill health. Now Western Australian company Grain Biotech Australia has engineered an experimental wheat, the world's number one cereal crop, that could help by keeping over-nourished Westerners in the pink of health. [ + ]
New chief named for CSIRO Plant Industry
Dr Jeremy Burdon is to succeed Dr Jim Peacock as chief of CSIRO Plant Industry, the organisation's chief executive, Dr Geoff Garrett, announced today. [ + ]
Cryptome debuts on ASX
Cryptome Pharmaceuticals, the first in a series of Australian biotechs scheduled to float in the next few months, made its debut on the ASX today with a starting price of AUD$0.25 and a market capitalisation of $12.6 million, after raising $6.6 million in its IPO. [ + ]
NZ's Protemix takes the road less travelled
Prof Garth Cooper, CEO of Auckland biopharmaceutical company Protemix, aims to make his company the first New Zealand biotech to take a discovered compound all the way to market. [ + ]
Xenome nets $3.2m grant
Queensland company Xenome has received a AUD$3.2 million R&D Start grant from the Federal government to accelerate the development of its lead chronic pain drug, Xen2174 into early clinical trials. [ + ]
New proteomics technology applied to plasma work
Researchers at the Joint Proteomics Laboratory (JPSL) at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research are using a new proteomics technology to remove common high-abundance proteins from plasma before analysis. [ + ]
'Eating machine' helps ID insulin activity
Diabetes researchers at Sydney's Garvan Institute have identified a gene that plays a key role in cellular sensitivity to insulin -- and which could be a target for anti-obesity drugs. [ + ]