Sydney-based SSH Medical (ASX:SSH) has started accepting applications for subscriptions to raise approximately $4.3 million to provide working capital for material science company Bio-Layer, which SSH is acquiring. [ + ]

Sydney-based Avastra (ASX:AVS) has filed a provisional patent on the use of its BioWeld technology in conjunction with surgical glues and adhesives. [ + ]

Dimerix Bioscience has closed a series A capital raising worth almost AUD$1 million, and has revealed plans to accelerate the development of its new compounds created by applying its technologies to novel G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) cluster targets. [ + ]

Melbourne-based Biota Holdings (ASX:BTA) has confirmed that three more countries have placed orders for Relenza, the anti-flu drug developed by Biota and commercialised by Britain's GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). [ + ]

Wheat stem rust, an inexorable pathogen of Australia's wheat belt since 1925, is destined to be run over by the genetic equivalent of a four-decker bus. [ + ]

Drug developer Pharmaxis (ASX:PXS) has enrolled its first patient for the phase II clinical trial to assess the ability of Aridol to predict the usefulness of inhaled corticosteroids as a treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). [ + ]

Four Australian universities have made an unusual decision to form a 'virtual company', Meristomics, to commercialise discoveries from basic research in their jointly operated ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Legume Research (CILR). [ + ]

Sydney anti-viral drug developer Narhex Life Sciences (ASX:NLS) has relocated its head office to Melbourne following the resignation of founder and managing director John Majewski. [ + ]

Sydney-based Biosignal (ASX:BOS) has been granted two additional Australian patents relating to its novel anti-bacterial technology. [ + ]

Biopharmaceutical company Novogen's (ASX:NRT) cardiovascular drug trans NV-04 has shown a significant reduction in blood pressure and reduced arterial stiffness in a Phase Ib clinical trial. [ + ]

Resonance Health Group (ASX:RHT) has signed a memorandum of understanding with a US radiology service provider for a pilot study in preparation for the commercial launch of its FerriScan diagnostic test. [ + ]

An Australian-developed electronic nose, developed by former CSIRO/University of New South Wales scientists, now part of E-Nose, can instantly sniff out weak but unpleasant odours and generate an electronic fingerprint of the strength and quality of the smell.

Biomaterials company Avastra (ASX:AVS) is to abandon a clinical trial of its BioWeld Tube at Concord Repatriation and General Hospital, Sydney. [ + ]

Antisense Therapeutics (ASX:ANP) has claimed successful results from animal studies targeting the growth hormone receptor with an antisense drug, designed to reduce the growth of new blood vessels that can lead to two eye diseases which are major causes of blindness. [ + ]

After a turbulent year, Sydney-based Polartechnics (ASX:PLT) has seen a threefold increase in sales revenue for the 2004-05 financial year and is aiming to be profitable in the current year. [ + ]