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. [ + ]

A whose who of Australia’s top medical researchers gathered at the Westin Hotel in Sydney last night for the 40th anniversary of the Ramacioitti Foundations, one of Australia’s oldest and largest medical research endowments. [ + ]

The federal government has named the 21-strong expert advisory panel who will help chart the direction of its $38.2 million National Enabling Technologies Strategy. [ + ]

The federal government today announced the formation of four new funds with a combined war chest of $160 million to support Australian innovation. [ + ]

A group of specially adapted green algae may hold the answer to sustainable and renewable energy for the future, helped by the Sun and more than a pinch of clever science. [ + ]