The international Human Variome Project is up and running following a highly successful first meeting in Melbourne in June. [ + ]

Hox genes - long thought to define the body plans of all animals - are not used by corals. [ + ]

An experimental drug designed to seek out and destroy a gene associated with vascular disease is providing effective in early animal trials. [ + ]

Female mammals may continue to proudce eggs throughout puberty and adulthood. [ + ]

Nano-sized fluorescent probes that can slip inside living cells and clarify life’s most fundamental processes, or track the effectiveness of cancer-fighting drugs, are barely noticed by the cells they enter, according to a team of researchers led by the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

The molecular machinery that starts the process by which a biological cell divides into two identical daughter cells apparently worked so well early on that evolution has conserved it across the eons in all forms of life on Earth.

University of Queensland researchers may have discovered why the koala is susceptible to certain infections and cancers.

Dr Frederic Meunier, a winner of UniQuest’s annual Trailblazer innovation competition, is developing a treatment for motoneuronal diseases based on modifying botox.

The University of Sydney has officially launched a new medical research facility – the Bosch Institute.

Duncan Jones has accepted the position of executive director of Science Industry Australia Inc and commenced his duties on 5 June.

Under an agreement signed between the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) and CSIRO, scientists will seek to determine the molecular structure of the foods we eat.

The Royal Society has launched a trial of an open access journal service, which will allow people to read new scientific papers free of charge immediately after they are published on the web.

Researchers at Cornell University have developed a technique to get closer look at individual atoms within crystal molecules.

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego have developed a ‘Smart Petri Dish’ that could be used to rapidly screen new drugs for toxic interactions or identify cells in the early stages of cancer circulating through a patient’s blood.

The Bio21 Collaborative Crystallisation Centre (Bio21-C3) is the first of its kind in Australia and will be opened by the Parliamentary Secretary for Innovation and Industry, Matt Viney, MP.