A marine researcher at The University of Western Australia has been appointed a Conservation Fellow of the Zoological Society of London - a society that appointed Charles Darwin a Fellow in 1837 following his five-year expedition on the HMS Beagle. [ + ]

A joint effort by the Australian Wine Research Institute and the University of British Columbia will sequence 15 varieties of the world’s most popular wine grape. [ + ]

Researchers from The Australian National University have discovered a cellular communication process used by plants to respond to drought. They discovered evidence of a process called retrograde signalling - where chemical signals move between different cellular compartments in the plant Arabidopsis. The movement of these signals switches on a defence mechanism which could help plants cope with drought conditions. [ + ]

Sex plays a much bigger role in the reproduction of vitally important seagrasses than previously thought, according to findings by researchers from The University of Western Australia. [ + ]

South Australia's vivoPharm has arranged to co-market primary patient-derived tumours owned by Berlin's EPO to US cancer drug researchers. [ + ]

The government is seeking comment on a new report covering the future of biotechnology and nanotechnology. [ + ]

The Center for Human Genetics and Laboratory Medicine Dr Klein and Dr Rost, and IMGM Laboratories, both located in Martinsried, Germany, have reported using the Roche GS Junior Benchtop System to sequence clinically relevant exons and identify genomic variations in solid tumours treated with an antibody-based medicine. [ + ]

UniQuest spinoff and pharmaceutical R&D company Janssen-Cilag will combine resources to support the development of a rheumatoid arthritis treatment. [ + ]

Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals’ (ASX:CUV) cites positive trial results for SCENESSE as likely reason for 34.2% spike in stock price last week. [ + ]

AusBiotech is pleased to once again conduct the annual CEO Industry Position Survey 2012, this year proudly supported by Grant Thornton. [ + ]

Our regular roundup of news and announcements in the wild world of scientific and health & medical research grants and funding. [ + ]

A new spectroscopy technique enables the investigation of two-dimensional electron states both at the surface and within crystals. [ + ]

Hereditary hearing loss is the most common sensory disorder in humans. A German research team led by Ingo Kurth from the Institute of Human Genetics at the University Hospital Jena, Germany, used a number of different methods, including Roche’s NimbleGen Custom Sequence Capture 385K array, to identify the gene mutated in the disease locus of the X-chromosome of a Spanish family with hereditary hearing loss. [ + ]

A new species of horse fly with a notably resplendent abdomen has been named after the American pop diva, Beyonce. [ + ]

Researchers from The Australian National University have used the latest earthquake-measuring technology to image the tectonic plate beneath south-east Australia and reveal for the first time the continent’s geological building blocks. [ + ]