The federal government has used the budget to announce that it will provide AUD$7.6 million over four years to establish and fund the activities of a new human genetics advisory committee. [ + ]

This week's federal budget contained a taxation measure designed to prime a 'brain siphon' that could help Australian biotechnology companies recruit experienced CEOs and other experienced senior executives from the US, Britain and Europe. [ + ]

Scientists at Monash University are researching an environmentally friendly alternative to herbicides that targets weeds but does not affect animals. This research could also lead to new treatments for the internationally alarming health issue of tuberculosis infection.

The federal budget, handed down on Tuesday night, makes no new commitments to science, with most of the money allocated simply honouring previous election promises. [ + ]

Biotech companies which have failed to raise enough capital to see them through to the next funding cycle might expire as a funding drought sets in, and blame "shocking" market conditions for forcing them to abandon or change their plans. [ + ]

When scientists finished sequencing the genomes of seven species of fruit fly last year, little did they know that they had also sequenced the genes of several bacteria that dwell undetected inside fruit fly embryos.

The federal budget has allocated AUD$5 million to Sydney University's Brain and Mind Research Institute, to go towards fitting out its new premises. [ + ]

A researcher from the Australian National University is about to take a flight in microgravity, to see whether the protein-rich blue-green alga Spirulina platensis is the Right Stuff as food for space travel. [ + ]

Sydney oncology drug developer Novogen (ASX:NRT, NASDAQ:NVGN) can smell the clover across the width of the Pacific, after its Connecticut-based subsidiary Marshall Edwards (LSE AIM:MSH and NASDAQ:MSHL) reported outstanding preliminary results from a trial of its clover-derived cancer drug phenoxodiol. [ + ]

The federal government has used last night's budget to confirm its 2004 election commitment to reviewing the venture capital industry in Australia. [ + ]

Private Sydney proteomics company Minomic has signed an agreement with a biotech backed by Hong Kong's billion-dollar Cheung Kong Group to collaborate on one of the biotech's anti-cancer compounds. [ + ]

Intellectualised debate is stalling progress towards a national electronic health records system, according to the MD of database specialist Intersystems Australia. [ + ]

Melbourne-based biotech Prima Biomed (ASX:PRR) has been granted a patent by the European Patent Office for its CancerVac therapy, and nanotechnology company pSivida (ASX:PSD, NASDAQ:PSDV, Xetra:PSI) has been granted its first Chinese patent. [ + ]

Western Australia's biggest private sector superannuation fund, Westscheme, has signed a AUD$15 million partnership with university based pre-seed venture fund Uniseed. [ + ]

Melbourne venture capital company GBS Venture Partners has announced the close of its GBS BioVentures III Fund. The fund raised AUD$145 million, making it more than twice as large as GBS's previous funds, and well over its original target of $120 million. [ + ]