Sydney-based biopharma Apollo Life Sciences has closed its AUD$9.5 million initial public offering early and heavily oversubscribed, its underwriter Blackwood Capital said. [ + ]

The Minister of Education, Science and Training, Dr Brendan Nelson has announced a total of 24 Federation Fellowships in Canberra early in June. The Australian Government, through the Australian Research Council, will provide A$40 million for new Fellows over the next five years.

Mesoblast (ASX:MSB) has appointed Dr Tamara Lewis as manager of clinical and regulatory affairs. [ + ]

Just under a week since Richard Opara stepped down from his role as interim chairman of Polartechnics (ASX:PLT) and resigned as director on June 8, his company Patonville, has served a requisition on Polartechnics to convene an Extraordinary General Meeting. [ + ]

Perth biotech Solbec Pharmaceuticals (ASX:SBP) has been granted an Australian patent covering aspects of the manufacturing, purification process and formulation of the active pharmaceutical ingredients of the company's lead compound Coramsine. [ + ]

The Australian Centre for Research on Separation Science (ACROSS) at the University of Tasmania has opened a new million-dollar laboratory to develop and manufacture microfluidics chips capable of analysing samples thousands of times smaller than a drop of water. [ + ]

Eleven new ARC centres of excellence and 24 federation fellowship receipients will share $162 million in federal government funding. [ + ]

Melbourne based Metabolic Pharmaceuticals (ASX:MBP) has lifted its trading halt and reinstated its shares on the ASX's official quotation following the completion of a AUD$10 million private placement and the offer of a $10 million share purchase plan. [ + ]

Two Melbourne researchers, Dr Merlin Thomas and Dr Stephen Ting, have jointly won the 2005 Victorian Premier's Award for Medical Research. [ + ]

Key pre-clinical data on GroPep's (ASX:GRO) infertility drug, PV903, showing a halving of the miscarriage rate in a strain of female mice susceptible to the immune rejection of the foetus, will be presented at a reproductive immunology meeting this week in the US. [ + ]

Melbourne based Metabolic Pharmaceuticals (ASX:MBP) has suspended its shares from the ASX's official quotation in the lead-up to an announcement. [ + ]

Researchers at the Spinal Injuries Research Centre at the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute have received AUD$200,000 from the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation to produce a three-dimensional map of the rat spinal cord that will be made publicly available on the internet. [ + ]

Two PhD students at the University of Melbourne's Department of Microbiology and Immunology were today awarded cash prizes towards travel to an international conference by life science company Qiagen. [ + ]

Clinical Cell Culture (C3, ASX:CCE) will launch CellSpray XP commercially in Europe next week at a meeting in Germany. Following the launch CellSpray XP will be available for sale in those European countries where it has regulatory approval - Austria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK. [ + ]

The president of the Australian Society for Medical Research has made a call for action from researchers to campaign for more federal government funding for medical research. [ + ]