Stemina Biomarker Discovery, a company whose cell-based tests combine stem cells and metabolomics, has been awarded a contract by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under its ToxCast initiative. [ + ]

The ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES) has received $25 million to further develop work on smart nanomaterials by creating 3D devices with capabilities more advanced than those of their 2D counterparts. [ + ]

Global diagnostics company EKF Diagnostics has announced that its Quo-Lab HbA1c point-of-care analyser has successfully achieved International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC) certification. [ + ]

Viralytics (ASX:VLA) has reached its 54-patient recruitment target for a US phase II trial of its Cavatak cancer treatment in malignant late-stage melanoma. [ + ]

Donald Olds has joined Bioniche (ASX:BNC) as COO, to help guide the company through the sale of its animal health business and help it meet its oncology ambitions. [ + ]

Research at Southern Cross University (SCU) has found that a popular sports supplement may help in the fight against type 2 diabetes. [ + ]

Researchers at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute have discovered a cellular protein that is important for keeping cancer cells alive and is thus a suitable target for treatment. Their results have been published in the journal Genes & Development. [ + ]

A Lund University study has found that HPV self-testing is as effective as tests done by doctors and, more importantly, more comfortable for women who find regular smear tests unpleasant. [ + ]

Genetic Technologies (ASX:GTG) CEO Alison Mew has extended her leave until end-March, and acting chief Tom Howitt will stay in charge in the interim. [ + ]

Scientists at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) have developed a software application, chroGPS, which serves to facilitate the analysis and understanding of epigenetic data and to extract intelligible information. [ + ]

Researchers have discovered that by compressing sodium chloride (rock salt) under certain high-pressure conditions, they can trigger a process which was found to form new compounds - despite chemistry textbooks saying this is impossible. [ + ]

Allied Market Research (AMR) has released a market research report analysing current and future trends in the continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) market from 2012 to 2020. The report projects that the CGM market will reach $568.5 million by 2020 from its 2012 value of $194.8 million. [ + ]

Cornell University researchers have developed a new system which, when fitted over a smartphone, can be used to quickly and easily measure cholesterol levels. The method has been described in the journal Lab on a Chip. [ + ]

The Australian Government's Mid-year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO), released yesterday, redirected $103 million to funding research which, according to Minister for Education Christopher Pyne, will help researchers deliver outcomes that will have significant benefit to the nation through the Australian Research Council (ARC). [ + ]

With more clinicians and researchers coming to rely on genetic data in their quest to combat disease, Moscow start-up company iBinom has released the beta version of a cloud-based SaaS (software as a service) solution for NGS (next-generation-sequencing) data interpretation. [ + ]