The federal government has released the draft legislation, to provide the research and development (R&D) tax incentive through quarterly credits, for public comment. [ + ]

Thermo Fisher Scientific and Life Technologies Corporation have signed a definitive agreement under which Thermo Fisher will acquire Life Technologies for $76 in cash per fully diluted common share, or approximately $13.6 billion, plus the assumption of net debt at close ($2.2 billion as of year-end 2012). [ + ]

Sixty years ago today, Federal Parliament passed the Atomic Energy Act - Australia’s first tentative step along a scientific path that led to the formation of one of our country’s leading public research organisations, which has benefited millions of people around the world. [ + ]

Two engineers have changed the way blood is collected and tested thanks to a world-first, fully integrated rapid test device, designed and developed in Australia. [ + ]

Nanosonics (ASX:NAN) has ramped up compatibility testing for its ultrasound probe disinfection system, adding 219 products from four vendors to the approved list. [ + ]

The University of Western Australia has licensed technology covering a prospective treatment for severe muscle-wasting disease DMD to existing partner Sarepta. [ + ]

Universal Biosensors (ASX:UBI) and six other companies have secured grants of up to $250K under the Victorian Government’s Technology Implementation Voucher program. [ + ]

Alchemia (ASX:ACL) has wrapped up a capital raising round with an oversubscribed SPP, securing a total of $12.95m to help fund its metastatic colorectal cancer trial. [ + ]

The ARCS Congress is coming up in Sydney at the beginning of June. [ + ]

A team of Melbourne researchers has received funding to take their work on a new class of anticancer drugs out of the lab and into the clinic. [ + ]

Mesoblast (ASX:MSB) CEO Silviu Itescu has been named the first recipient of the Pontifical Council for Culture and Stem for Life Foundation’s Key Innovation Award. [ + ]

Sirtex Medical (ASX:SRX) has signed on the final patient for SIRFLOX, a trial of its SIR-Spheres liver cancer treatments that has been recruiting since 2006. [ + ]

Researchers at the University of Michigan have identified a new potential therapeutic target for lowering cholesterol that could be an alternative or complementary therapy to statins. [ + ]

Thanks to USB sticks and video streaming, DVD players are becoming all but obsolete. But their cheap optics may find a new life in a cost-effective and speedy technique for on-the-spot HIV testing and other analytics. [ + ]

An announcement today of a licensing agreement with US drug company Sarepta Therapeutics to develop new treatments based on award-winning research into Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) at The University of Western Australia may lead to the state’s first genetic drug derived from WA research. [ + ]