Opponents of embryonic stem cell research have leaped to congratulate Griffith University scientists, who yesterday announced details of research in which differentiated cells were successfully grown from adult stem cells. [ + ]

A research team led by Prof Alan Mackay-Sim of Griffith University has successfully grown nerve, heart, liver, kidney and muscle cells from adult stem cells harvested from the olfactory mucosa. [ + ]

State premiers have apparent rebuffed Prime Minister John Howard's request for a 12-month extension to the current restriction on creating new embryonic stem cell lines, which is due to expire on April 5. [ + ]

At the suggestion of eminent UK neuroscience researcher Baroness Susan Greenfield, the South Australian Government is establishing an Australian Science Media Centre (AusSMC) in Adelaide to serve as a national portal for the media to obtain expert advice on science subjects. [ + ]

Melbourne's Antisense Therapeutics (ASX:ANP) is pressing ahead with development of its ATL1102 inhalant inflammation inhibitor for asthma, despite voluntarily suspending research into the drug's potential as a therapy for multiple sclerosis early this month. [ + ]

The US Patent and Trademark Office has granted Ventracor (ASX:VCR) and the company's research partners at the University of Technology Sydney a patent over the control system used in its VentrAssist heart device. [ + ]

Prof Garth Cooper, CEO of Auckland biopharma company Protemix, said he was "extremely pleased" this week at the news that the US Food and Drug Administration has approved the clinical use of diabetes drug he discovered as a young PhD at Oxford in 1986-7. [ + ]

Australian companies contemplating a listing on Nasdaq have a new set of regulatory concerns to consider, with the introduction of the controversial Sarbanes-Oxley legislation in the US. [ + ]

Queensland company Bioprospect (ASX: BPO) has dipped deep into its pockets, paying US$530,000 for a third of private Seattle-based biotech Astrum Therapeutics, which is investigating compounds that arrest the destruction of insulin-secreting cells associated with type 1 diabetes. [ + ]

Sydney's Proteome Systems has won a US$2 million federal government R&D Start grant to advance development of its new rapid diagnostic for tuberculosis. [ + ]

GlaxoSmithKline said US regulators had halted clinical trials on multiple sclerosis drugs in the same class as recently withdrawn treatment Tysabri, including its experimental product '699. [ + ]

Sydney venture capital company Nanyang Ventures has injected $2.5 million into Genetic Solutions to help accelerate the Brisbane genetic information-technology company's product development and international marketing initiatives. [ + ]

Progen's vice president of R&D, Robert Don, is leaving the company to take up the "job of a lifetime" developing drugs for neglected diseases that affect developing countries in Africa, Asia and the Americas. [ + ]

In one of the more intriguing examples of technological cross-pollination, Melbourne dendrimer-drug drug developer Starpharma Holdings (ASX:SPL, USOTC:SPHRY) announced today it has become a foundation shareholder in a new Perth-based biotech, Dimerix Bioscience. [ + ]

Sydney virotherapy developer Psiron (ASX:PSX) reported this week that two end-stage melanoma patients have shown no adverse effects from the first human test its of its oncolytic virus therapy, [ + ]