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. [ + ]

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.