Industry News
Dow AgroSciences and PICSE help students into science careers
Dow AgroSciences has joined forces with PICSE (Primary Industry Centre for Science Education) to help attract Australia’s future scientists to careers in agribusiness and research.
[ + ]UWA Vice-Chancellor to retire
The University of Western Australia’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Alan Robson has announced his retirement from the position at the end of 2011.
[ + ]Feature: Peter Doherty and the quest for a flu vaccine
Professor Peter Doherty has written his last grant application. But the 69-year-old Nobel Laureate hasn’t retired quite yet. [ + ]
Needle-free vaccine technology a step closer to clinical trials
Researchers at The University of Queensland believe they are a step closer to ridding the world of vaccinations with needles and syringes.
[ + ]Life science backgrounder: What is xenotransplantation?
Xenotransplantation is the transplantation of organs or cells from a non-human animal into a human. [ + ]
Decloaking perforin, the protein assassin
When the immune system identifies a cell that needs to be eliminated, such as a virus-infected cell or cancer cell, natural killer cells descend and puncture the offending cell, injecting toxic enzymes to spell its doom. [ + ]
Market report: Healthcare index down for the week, month and Q1
The S&P/ASX 200 Healthcare Index ended the month down on Friday closing at 8179.3 points compared to the 8202.1 point close on October 1, indicating that investors remain cautious about the sector. [ + ]
Victorian Cancer Agency awards $400,000 fellowship to ovarian specialist
This year’s $400,000 Victorian Cancer Agency (VCA) Clinical Fellowship has been awarded to Dr Clare Scott from theWalter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) to help advance her ground-breaking work on epithelial ovarian cancer. [ + ]
Aussie biotech equities under perform wider market for Q1: PWC
PricewaterhouseCoopers has released its Q1FY11 BioForum report on Australia’s life sciences and biotech equities, revealing that the sector went backwards slightly as the wider market advanced. [ + ]
1000 Genomes Project publishes first results
The first pilot phase of the 1000 Genomes Project has now ended with the results published this week in the journal Nature (doi:10.1038/nature09534). [ + ]
Support continues for biotechnologies
Australians continue to strongly support biotechnologies that provide health and environmental benefits, but support for genetically modified (GM) foods has dropped slightly since 2007, a new survey has found.
[ + ]Insight into how immune cells cause diabetes
Researchers from Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research have uncovered a mechanism by which immune cells interact, giving insight into the causes of Type 1 diabetes, where the body's own immune cells target the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. [ + ]
R&D schemes set scene for NZ to boost science spend
IRL Chief Executive Shaun Coffey has applauded the introduction of the technology transfer voucher funding scheme announced recently by the government but says the country as a whole can do more.
[ + ]Hatchtech raises $6.3 million for Phase IIb head lice trial
Melbourne biotech Hatchtech announced today that it has raised $6.3 million to fund Phase IIb clinical trials for its novel treatment for head lice. [ + ]