An award was announced at the AusBiotech 2006 Conference in Sydney, giving Australian scientists at the forefront of Australian medical research an opportunity to build their networks within the global arena and follow in the footsteps of Australian of the Year, Ian Frazer, taking his Australian research into the HPV vaccine to the global market.

Scientists with the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the Joint Genome Institute (JGI) have sequenced genomic DNA from fossilised Neanderthal bones with surprising results.

Box Hill Institute biotechnology students will get international training opportunities with the signing of an agreement with US-based company PaleoTechnology International.

The genome of the sea urchin has been sequenced, with discoveries including a novel immune system, unexpected sensory proteins and a broad similarity to human genes. [ + ]

Melbourne company Mesoblast has announced positive results from preclinical trials of its patented adult stem cells injected by catheter directly into damaged heart muscle of sheep after a heart attack. [ + ]

Drug maker Merck & Co has won another lawsuit over its Vioxx painkiller. [ + ]

A team of scientists who determined the molecular structure of the insulin receptor has won the 2006 CSIRO Chairman’s Medal.

An Australian study to better understand the devastating and deadly Alzheimer's disease has been launched in Melbourne.

The mission and goals of hospital laboratories are changing rapidly with greater emphasis on activities such as point-of-care testing and outreach testing, working in tandem with other automated systems in the hospital.

A Sydney research team has shown that encapsulating embryonic stem cells prevents the formation of tumours. [ + ]

A prototype device that could enable both DNA and protein identification and measurement in a single sample at the same time has received the backing of US giant Applied Biosystems. [ + ]

Scientists at Melbourne's Howard Florey Institute have shown that physical exercise alone can delay onset of memory loss in Huntington's disease (HD), but a combination of mental and physical exercise is more beneficial in delaying the fatal genetic disease's symptoms. [ + ]

"It is not that stem cell transplantation doesn't work, it is just that we need more work to figure it out." With this kind of simple optimism, and a little green jasmine tea, Professor Brent Reynolds chatted with Fiona Wylie about life, coincidence and the use of neural stem cells to treat spinal cord injury. [ + ]

The Australian Stem Cell Centre is studying an alternative approach to treating spinal cord damage using acellular dermal matrix processing. Fiona Wylie spoke to the ASCC's Kathy Traienedes. [ + ]

Gene silencing by small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) has emerged as an extremely useful technology for discovery biology, but off-target activity has proved a stumbling block. Detailed mechanistic insights and chemical modification of siRNAs can now improve the robustness of RNAi experiments, as Kate McDonald reports. [ + ]