The 5th Australian Health and Medical Research Congress (AHMRC) wound up in Melbourne today after this week playing host to a coterie of top local and international researchers. [ + ]

Australia’s peak life sciences industry body AusBiotech has called for calm over the escalating debate on gene patenting, which it sees as having been hijacked by ill-informed and emotionally driven political and community groups. [ + ]

A team of international researchers led by ancient DNA experts from the University of Adelaide has resolved the longstanding issue of the origins of the people who introduced farming to Europe some 8000 years ago.

Shares in diagnostics company HealthLinx surged 18 percent today after the company announced positive results from its independent, multi-centre, multi-site second study for OvPlex based on two new biomarkers being evaluated as diagnostics for ovarian cancer. [ + ]

A Tel Aviv University researcher has pioneered the development of a swift, small, highly reliable sensor that is claimed to be able to detect explosives more reliably than trained sniffer dogs.

Shares in Melbourne biotech Patrys jumped by 15 per cent by late morning today after the company announced that it has completed treatment of the first patient group in the melanoma trial of its natural human antibody product PAT-SM6. [ + ]

Living Cell Technologies reported today that its NTCELL cell implant product for neurodegenerative conditions has demonstrated effectiveness in two pre-clinical models of Parkinson's disease. [ + ]

Researchers from Sydney’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research have shown that beta blockers can increase bone density and reduce the risk of osteoporotic fracture in around 50 per cent of patients. [ + ]

Sequencing technology has advanced so far in the last few years that questions are now being asked about the value of existing research data and the techniques for acquiring it. [ + ]

It was once widely believed that life differed fundamentally from non-life; the defining characteristic of life was the existence of some insubstantial vital force – an élan vital – for which no physical process could account. [ + ]

Life Research has added the peptide portfolio of Mimotopes to its repertoire with the acquisition of the company from its parent, Commonwealth Biotechnologies, by Leadtec Systems. [ + ]

A combination of organic solvents in different proportions has been found to differentially dissolve a range of noble metals, making recycling of the metal catalysts easier.

With the effects of the GFC still being felt across industry, academia and business, now more than ever is the time to be working smarter, not harder.

Repairing damage and maintaining the integrity of its DNA is one of the cell’s highest priorities. A newly discovered mechanism has been found that detects and repairs alkylation, which can be caused by a number of environmental toxins and chemotherapy drugs.

By reconstructing an ancient protein and tracing how it subtly changed over vast periods of time to produce scores of modern-day descendants, scientists have shown how evolution tinkers with early forms and leaves the impression that complexity evolved many times.