Professor Georg Melchers, from the University of Basel in Switzerland, is in Sydney to discuss biologics and the treatment of autoimmune diseases. [ + ]

Digital planetariums worldwide have snapped up a fulldome movie produced by The University of Western Australia (UWA) which uses stunning simulations made inside supercomputers to explain the science around dark matter - the missing 80% of the universe’s mass. [ + ]

A study in the latest issue of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine shows how stem cells can be used to successfully repair the mandible after a molar extraction and that, years later, the new bone is still functioning properly. [ + ]

Lonza Walkersville and Hyglos GmbH have reached a mutually beneficial global settlement which includes a licence agreement for Hyglos under certain Lonza patents in the area of endotoxin detection. [ + ]

The US FDA will decide by 26 August whether to approve QRxPharma’s revised application for approval of its dual-opioid pain patch. [ + ]

Insulating cells - the cells that protect our nerves - can be made and added to the central nervous system throughout our lifetime. There is now evidence that these cells may not be the passive bystanders to brain function that we once thought. [ + ]

Mesoblast (ASX:MSB) has filled its coffers to the tune of $170m through a private placement in order to help raise funds for upcoming clinical trials of its adult stem cells. [ + ]

Australian shareholders are being given the opportunity to buy into Biolife Science with a vaccine that shows potential to combat stomach (gastric) and breast cancer. [ + ]

University of Montreal researchers have found that changes in gravity affect the reproductive process in plants. Gravity modulates traffic on the intracellular ‘highways’ that ensure the growth and functionality of the male reproductive organ in plants - the pollen tube. [ + ]

The University of Queensland has received a major funding boost to its development of a saliva test to diagnose the early stages of head and neck cancer linked to human papillomavirus (HPV). [ + ]

UNSW’s Dean of Science, Professor Merlin Crossley, has found the third and final missing piece in the genetic puzzle of an unusual form of haemophilia, more than 20 years after he discovered the first two pieces. [ + ]

Deep in water-filled underground caves beneath Australia’s Nullarbor Plain, cave divers have discovered unusual ‘curtains’ of biological material known as Nullarbor cave slimes. [ + ]

Nominations for the NHMRC 2013 Ethics Award close on 22 March 2013. [ + ]

Hatchtech has appointed Australian pharmaceutical industry veteran Hugh Alsop to the post of CEO as it prepares for phase III trials of head lice treatment DeOvo. [ + ]

Australian researchers have taken part in an international study that has deciphered how devil facial tumour disease cells evade the immune system. [ + ]