South Australian-based Vet Biotechnology (NSX:VBL) is aiming to raise up to AUD$4.25 million in capital to fund development of a vaccine against 'rattles' disease in racehorses by a backdoor listing on the ASX in late November through Plantcorp. [ + ]

Progen Industries has accepted a $3.39 million AusIndustry Commercial Ready grant to support the further development of the company's drug discovery program over the next three years.

Perth-based bio-nanotech company pSivida (ASX:PSD, NASDAQ:PSDV, Xetra:PSI) has commenced its phase IIb clinical trials with its BrachySil technology as a potential treatment for inoperable primary liver cancer. [ + ]

PharmAust (ASX:PAA) has appointed Dr Paul D'Sylva as managing director, also making him responsible for the company's wholly owned subsidiary companies Epichem, Mimotopes and PharmAust Manufacturing. [ + ]

Privately-held immunotherapy developer Opal Therapeutics has raised US$6 million in series A financing to develop therapeutic vaccines for HIV and hepatitis C (HCV). [ + ]

Giant New Zealand-based global dairy company Fonterra has revealed plans to establish a new AUD$15 million global consumer foods R&D centre in Melbourne's eastern suburbs. [ + ]

Jose Rizo-Rey Laboratory, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas has used Wyatt Technology's DynaPro range of dynamic light scattering (DLS) instruments to achieve accurate and consistent liposome characterisation. Liposomes are of commercial interest for medical, pharmacological and cosmetic applications since they are used to deliver drugs or genetic material into a cell. The findings are detailed in a new, free of charge application note from Wyatt.

If living cell is replaced by a test-tube with DNA and a set of substances, it is possible to get proteins in a more simple and inexpensive way. That was done by Russian biochemists synthesising insulin without help of transgene Escherichia coli.

An analysis method permitting the simultaneous quantification of numerous parameters in the immune system was recently presented at the Campus Vienna Biocenter. The technology, which has been developed by Bender MedSystems, is based on the principle of a widespread analysis device and thus allows for rapid implementation in daily laboratory life. It thus succeeds in satisfying the growing demand at clinical and pharmaceutical organisations for increasingly efficient analysis methods at favourable costs.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) would have to seek approval from Melbourne-based Biota Holdings (ASX:BTA) before the multinational pharmaceutical company could give away any licensing rights to the anti-flu drug Relenza, Biota's CEO Peter Molloy said today. [ + ]

Perth-based bio-nanotech company pSivida (ASX:PSD, NASDAQ:PSDV, Xetra:PSI) has signed a licence deal worth more than AUD$2.64 million with a US-based firm. [ + ]

Tissue engineering specialist Clinical Cell Culture (ASX:CCE, C3) has treated a first European patient with its burns therapy CellSpray at Halle, in Germany. [ + ]

The Brain Resource Company (ASX:BRC) has been granted approval from the US FDA to market its methodology and standardised international human brain database. [ + ]

The first cracks have appeared in the Australia-wide moratoria on genetically modified crops, with the decision of the Primary Industries Ministerial Council (PIMC) to adopt a threshold level of 0.9 per cent for adventitious presence of GM grain in conventional canola. [ + ]

A new blood test detects iron deficiency in infants earlier and more accurately than the commonly used haemoglobin screening test, according to a study in the August 24/31 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Iron deficiency is estimated to affect nearly 10% of American children one to two years of age. Early detection and treatment are critical because iron deficiency can impair infant mental development, possibly permanently, even before it progresses to anaemia.