Friday May 21 is your final day to submit applications for the Prime Minister's Prizes for Science, so stop editing that PhD student's paper and get your entry in now. [ + ]

A new 'tree of life' has been constructed for the gamma-proteobacteria, a large group of medically and scientifically important bacteria that includes Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium, and other disease-causing organisms. [ + ]

Researchers at The University of Western Australia have moved a step closer to understanding the fundamental evolutionary question of variation within a species by studying the genetics of a small brown beetle.

Italy's National Health System has bucked the European regulatory system and approved the use and reimbursement of Clinuvel's photoprotective drug, afamelanotide, prior to it gaining regulatory approval in Europe or the US. [ + ]

The final draft of the Government’s proposed revised R&D tax credit legislation was introduced into Parliament yesterday, less than 12 hours after it was made available to members of Parliament and the Australian business community. [ + ]

In defiance of market conditions, Melbourne and San Francisco-based pharma company, Relevare Pharmaceuticals, is confident it can raise at least $20 million in an IPO, slated to take place this year. [ + ]

After a decade of preparation, the US Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology has released the Digital Library of Mathematical Functions and its printed companion, the NIST Handbook of Mathematical Functions.

Almost precisely 12 months after it was first announced, the much-debated R&D Tax Credit legislation was introduced into parliament by Innovation Minister, Senator Kim Carr, today, but there's still controversy over the definition of "research and development." [ + ]

A researcher from The Australian National University has won a US$100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a new HIV vaccine that might also lead to vaccine breakthroughs for other major diseases.

Dionex Corporation has announced the establishment of a permanent academic endowment at The University of Texas at Arlington that will benefit the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in College of Science.

Positive phase III results weren't enough to save apricitabine, the flagship HIV treatment being developed by Melbourne-based Avexa. [ + ]

Researchers at the Garvan Institute have revealed some insights into the disorder, finding it is also associated with an overactive immune response and may be linked to speel apnoea. [ + ]

As time ticks down to get the new R&D tax credit bill through parliament by the 1 July implementation date, opposition from outside the biotech sector may seriously threaten its passage – and AusBiotech urges the Federal Government to persist. [ + ]

Melbourne-based Mesoblast, developer of stem cell therapies, has bought out all remaining shares of its US-based associate company, Angioblast Systems. [ + ]

The 2010-2011 budget handed down by the Treasurer, Wayne Swan, last night was exceptional, if only for its unexceptional nature, with fiscal restraint overshadowing any major spending initiatives. [ + ]