Venture capital fund Start-up Australia Ventures has invested AUD$3 million in junior biotech Caldeon, which is collaborating with the University of Western Australia to optimise osteoporosis drug leads which could reduce bone loss. [ + ]

Psiron (ASX:PSX) has announced that Stephen Jones will assume day-to-day control of the company, taking on the role of executive chairman. Julie Nutting will continue as the company's chief executive with responsibility for five clinical trial and manufacturing milestones for the company's CVA 21 virus by the end of the year. [ + ]

Biogen has withdrawn its 2005 earnings forecast as it can no longer count on revenue from its suspended multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri. [ + ]

A new Brisbane biotech, RepliKun, has been spun out from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR), the University of Queensland and the state's health department to commercialise a novel vaccine vector, based on the Kunjin virus replicon -- the self-replicating genetic core of the mosquito-borne virus of Australia's tropics. [ + ]

A molecular geneticist working on cancer at Westmead Hospital's Children's Medical Research Institute (CMRI) has made a chance discovery that throws new light on the mechanisms that immortalise cancer cells. [ + ]

The South Australian branch of the AusBiotech Student Association (ABSA) was launched last night in Adelaide. [ + ]

Four months into an 18-month collaboration with the US-based High Q Foundation, Sydney's Proteome Systems (ASX:PXL) is to bank US$300,000 of a possible US$3 million in milestone payments, having successfully zeroed in on a small number of candidate biomarkers for the inherited neurodegenerative disorder Huntington's disease. [ + ]

Four Queensland-based companies, two Victorian biotechs and the NSW-based arm of an international pharmaceutical firm have received a total of AUD$46 million under the federal government's pharmaceutical partnerships program, known as P3. [ + ]

Starpharma (ASX: SPL, USOTC:SPHRY) has appointed former Cerylid Biosciences chief executive officer Dr Jackie Fairley to the newly created position of chief operating officer. Fairley will begin her role with Starpharma toward the middle of 2005. [ + ]

Melbourne's Epitan is planning to raise up to 15 million pounds (AUD$37 million) in a flotation on London's AIM stock market. EpiTan focuses on dermatology and its main product, Melanotan, helps treat sunburn injury. [ + ]

A Melbourne research team has dead-heated with US giant Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in the race to identify the elusive enzyme that destroys cartilage in inflammatory arthritis, but has been beaten to the IP punch by the big Boston-based pharma. [ + ]

Preliminary data from Solbec Pharmaceuticals' (ASX:SBP) Phase I/IIa clinical trial of its anti-psoriasis developmental drug Coramsine have confirmed that it is safe and well tolerated, but have not indicated any superiority to existing commercial treatments for psoriasis. [ + ]

Perth-based functional proteomics company Phylogica (ASX: PYC) has defied recent biotech trends, with shares in the company opening today 37 per cent above their issue price of $0.20. At time of writing shares had slipped slightly and were trading at $0.25. [ + ]

The CSIRO has revealed that part of the technology used to develop the blue rose -- unveiled last year by Japanese giant Suntory and its subsidiary, Melbourne company Florigene -- was an RNAi technique developed by CSIRO for gene replacement in plants. [ + ]

Monash University is hoping to move into the big league of international protein research after completing the world's largest installation of GE Healthcare's new parallel protein purification workstation, in readiness for first light from Victoria's new $180 million synchrotron in 2007. [ + ]