The Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, Mark Butler, has announced $447.5 million for nationwide medical research grants, through the National Health and Medical Research Council.

A group of Australian and Austrian researchers have located a key gene behind the body’s perception of pain, a mutation of which has been shown to replace pain with other sensations. [ + ]

In the past decade, the zero-till revolution has rolled across wheat farms on the margins of the arid zone in south-eastern Australia, helping wheat growers survive the longest and deepest drought since European settlement. [ + ]

IRL high-temperature superconductor researcher Dr Grant Williams has been honoured with a prestigious science award - the Hector Medal.

The S&P/ASX 200 Heathcare Index managed to sneak into positive territory this week, adding to last week’s strong gains. [ + ]

British news and analysis magazine, The Economist, has announced the results of its recent debate on biotechnology and sustainable agriculture finding a majority of voters in opposition of the motion, yet suggesting that technical difficulties and a coordinated effort by anti-GM activists has skewed the result. [ + ]

Troubled HIV treatment developer Avexa will pay around $1.5 million to acquire up to 24 percent of Western Australia medical devices company Allied Medical under the terms of a deal revealed this week. [ + ]

Leadtec Systems Australia has signed a share purchase agreement to buy Mimotopes, the Australian subsidiary of US company Commonwealth Biotechnologies, for a cash consideration of $950,000 and an earn out potential of $100,000, if Mimotopes reaches certain milestone earnings in 2011. The transaction will require shareholder approval and is expected to close in 2010.

To keep soldiers in the battlefield healthy, the US Army is exploring new ways to detect harmful bacteria in water.

The Australian Academy of Science welcomes the proposal by the Australian Research Council to create new Discovery Awards for early career researchers.

The R&D Tax Credit legislation has had a chequered past, going through multiple revisions and stalling before entering the Senate prior to the federal election. [ + ]

Alzheimer's disease and other neurological ailments are well know to affect individuals later in life, but now a study by researchers at ANU and Brunel University, London, has found the precursors to neurological decline can be found in individuals in middle-age. [ + ]

Australia’s National Measurement Institute is supporting Australia’s fight against drugs in sport thanks to a US Partnership for Clean Competition (PCC) grant.

The recent scare involving six Australian customs officials who appear to have contracted a latent tuberculosis infection has called into question the current protection and testing measures. [ + ]

The heart is an organ beautiful in form, efficient in function and intricate in regulation. Professor Richard Harvey has spent his career uncovering the developmental and molecular workings of the heart. [ + ]