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. [ + ]

Graeme O'Neill speaks with RNAi pioneer Peter Waterhouse and meets Drosha, Dicer, Argonaute and other characters. [ + ]

Australia's much maligned native grasses have come in for a make-over in recent years. And as Graeme O'Neill reports, they needn't weep anymore. [ + ]

Melbourne's Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre has entered into a five-year collaboration with Affymetrix to use the company's GeneChip microarray technology for translational research projects. Kate McDonald reports. [ + ]

When: 2-4 March 2007
Where: Sydney Convention Exhibition Centre
Registration: www.rcpa.edu.au/pathologyupdate

It could be a long way off before we can take a 'caveolin pill' to fix our livers after a big night out, but a recent breakthrough by collaborating scientists in Brisbane and Barcelona has brought the possibility a little closer, as Fiona Wylie reports. [ + ]

The bill to overturn the ban on using therapeutic cloning was passed by the Senate last night. We provide a breakdown of who voted and how. [ + ]

CSIRO, through the Food Futures Flagship, Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients and the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) have announced a partnership to accelerate the development of super-healthy wheat varieties.

The Australian Senate has today taken the first steps in overturning the ban on therapeutic cloning, voting 35 to 31 in favour of a private member's bill recommending the adoption of the Lockhart Review. [ + ]

Researchers have found a highly unusual distribution of two proteins in the lungs and airways of people with cystic fibrosis, a discovery that could be a step in determining how the disease progresses. [ + ]

An international competition is calling for designs for a universal nanotechnology hazard symbol.

Sydney researchers have shown for the first time how liver cells make contact with T cells in the body. [ + ]

Australian scientists have unravelled a mystery behind the evolutionary origins of two debilitating human genetic diseases by studying the kangaroo and platypus genome. [ + ]

Melbourne-based Stem Cell Sciences (SCS) has signed an exclusive license agreement with the US Millipore Corporation to develop and market SCS' serum-free media for the growth of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). [ + ]