When does a micronutrient become a contaminant? How much can our native species handle? Are the risks to human health fully understood? And what can we do to clean up our land and water?

GlaxoSmithKline has missed the timetabled April 8 deadline for the filing of its defence to Biota's lawsuit, set by Victorian Supreme Court Justice Whelan in Feburary. [ + ]

The Queensland Investment Corporation has ceased to be a substantial shareholder in flu vaccine developer BioDiem (ASX:BDM), having sold more than AUD$500,000 worth of stock in the company. BioDiem raised $12 million at $1.25 per share in its IPO at the beginning of last year, and QIC took a shareholding of 5.1 per cent. At time of writing Biodiem's shares were trading at $0.44. [ + ]

The 'H' in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) could stand just as well for Hydra, the multi-headed monster of Greek myth. By the time the human immune system has decapitated one strain of the virus, it has spawned a host of novel mutants. Mutants proliferate because natural selection endowed the virus with a dodgy reverse transcriptase enzyme that introduces random errors into the genetic blueprints of newly replicated virus particle. [ + ]

A Royal Adelaide Hospital cardiovascular disease expert has told ABC-TV's current affairs program Four Corners that Merck & Co's anti-inflammatory drug Vioxx may have contributed to the deaths of many as 300 Australians from heart attack or stroke. [ + ]

Prana Biotechnology (ASX:PBT) has dropped a bombshell on the market, announcing that it has halted a UK Phase II/III clinical trial for its lead compound clioquinol (PBT-1) after it discovered that manufacturing impurities could cause side-effects including mutagenicity and neurotoxicity. [ + ]

Its US rivals' pain is proving to be AstraZeneca's gain -- at least in the short term. The withdrawal of Merck & Co's Vioxx last September has lifted demand for AstraZeneca's Nexium heartburn and ulcer treatment, and the suspension of Pfizer's Bextra may give a further boost, industry analysts said on Friday. [ + ]

A workshop on new methods of detecting and controlling the spread of one of the world's most deadly frog diseases – chytridiomycosis – was recently held at CSIRO Livestock Industries' Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) in Geelong, Victoria.

Traditionally if scientists wanted to look at something small they would put a sample under a microscope but now researchers have managed to shrink the microscope itself to the size of a single human cell.

New Zealand Crown Research Institute AgResearch is selling off its wholly owned subsidiary, sheep vaccine distributor AgVax, under its policy of divesting itself of its profitable start-ups. [ + ]

Do you want sugars with that? Sydney protein specialist Apollo is planning an IPO next month to raise funds to develop its extensive portfolio of glycosylated proteins as research agents and therapeutics. [ + ]

Melbourne-based drug-development company ChemGenex (ASX:CGX) has begun a Phase II trial of its developmental drug Ceflatonin to re-sensitise late-stage chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) who have developed resistance to the Novartis 'miracle' drug Gleevec. [ + ]

In the science fiction series Star Trek, the Klingons use cloaking technology to render their spaceships invisible to the Enterprise's sophisticated sensor systems. But like many other futuristic ideas, that cloaking technology was invented by nature first. The tiny vampire Plasmodium falciparum, which causes the deadliest form of human malaria, has up to 60 ways of cloaking itself against its host's immune defences. [ + ]

Regenera (ASX:RGA) has signed deal with an affiliate of US opthamology giant Alcon, which one independent source has valued at US$100 million (AUD$130 million), for a steroid technology it licensed in only last year which is used in eye surgery. [ + ]

The opportunities for research have been widened with the recent lifting of a ban on using recently created embryos.