In what CEO Chris Roberts called "an absolutely fabulous result", bionic ear specialist Cochlear (ASX:COH) has posted record revenue, cochlear implant sales, and core earnings for the half year ended December 31, 2005. [ + ]

The NSW and Chinese governments have signed an agreement to help foster collaborative relationships between science and technology parks and commercial enterprises. [ + ]

Melbourne-based Acrux (ASX:ACR) has signed an agreement with the New York-based Population Council to commercialise a contraceptive spray containing Nestorone, a fourth-generation progestin contraceptive which cannot be taken orally. [ + ]

Danish biotech Genmab has acquired exclusive worldwide rights to angiogenesis targets identified by Adelaide-based Bionomics (ASX:BNO). [ + ]

In five years' time, Australian researchers aim to know what causes both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, with the help of a new national genetic database that has been set up to collect and study DNA from 3000 Australian families with diabetic children. [ + ]

Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon might have spared himself and his men the travails of their fruitless and ultimately fatal quest for the fountain of youth in the Caribbean in 1513 by staying at home in and quaffing the genuine article from oak barrels in his wine cellar, writes Graeme O'Neill. [ + ]

Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have identified a panel of 22 biomarkers that together provide a more accurate screening for prostrate cancer than the current prostrate specific antigen, or PSA, test.

Inconsistencies among a growing number of genetic databases could lead to misdiagnoses of genetic disorders by health care providers, according to a study that appears in Cytogentic and Genome Research.

A review of Perth-based Phylogica's (ASX:PYC) Phylomer technology has been published in the February issue of Nature Biotechnology. [ + ]

Australian and European authorities have eased the regulatory pathway for Resonance Health (ASX:RHT), by endorsing quality assurance systems for the Perth-based firm's FerriScan technology. [ + ]

A new AUD$20 million agricultural biotech centre will be opened by Victorian premier Steve Bracks this Wednesday. [ + ]

CogState (ASX:CGS) is to provide cognition testing services to a European food products company in a contract worth more than AUD$400,000. [ + ]

The Australian Drug Evaluation Committee has recommended to the TGA that Sydney-based drug developer Pharmaxis' (ASX:PXS) first product, the asthma diagnostic and treatment management tool Aridol, be registered for sale in Australia. [ + ]

The ASX has issued a 'please explain' to Brisbane-based Analytica (ASX:ALT), querying whether the company will have enough cash to last it past the next quarter. [ + ]

Two UCLA studies have shown that newborn screening for Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID) a rare, treatable disorder of the immune system commonly known as 'bubble boy disease' is both cost-effective and could be done accurately using a two tiered testing method.