A Phase 1 trial of a transdermal delivery system of pain reliever oxycodone has positive results. [ + ]

US researchers have isolated the multipotent progenitor cell in humans for the first time. [ + ]

A cancer cell line that is resistant to one of the newest classes of cancer treatments has been developed by researchers who already are using it to determine treatment alternatives for when it starts appearing in patients.

The monoclonal therapeutic and diagnostic antibodies market is expected to increase by 80% by 2012, according to a technical market research report by BCC Research.

Australia's largest biotechnology company, CSL, has released preliminary data on a novel antibody therapy for acute myeloid leukaemia. [ + ]

Australia's durum wheat growers have extra reason to be worried as the worst drought in two centuries provides a grim foretaste of the Infernal Century. However, a chance discovery of a salt-tolerance gene from decades-old seed lines is looking promising. [ + ]

An open-source tool that allows physicists and mathematicians to solve complex equations, without spending hundreds of thousands on expensive software, has won first prize in the scientific software division of Les Trophées du Libre, an international competition for free software.

CSIRO scientists have combined disease resistance genes in wild wheat varieties. [ + ]

Queensland researchers show how the stress hormone noradrenaline acts as a fast modulatory transmitter in the brain. [ + ]

Human evolution has become supercharged in the last 40,000 years, new research shows. [ + ]

Millipore Corp has announced a joint development agreement with Rohm & Haas Company to create high-performance chromatography products for use in the production of biologic drugs.

LCT is set to start a pig islet transplantation trial for type 1 diabetes that may have a profound effect on the debate over Australia's xenotransplantation moratorium in 2009. [ + ]

A DNA-based therapy could speed the development of effective drugs to combat antibiotic-resistant super bugs.

Malaria specialist Brendan Crabbe appointed new director of Burnet Institute. [ + ]

Scientists have discovered that many insects have a form of immune memory similar to the vertebrate system, which protects them against reinvasion by previously encountered pathogens.