Brisbane's Agenix is not yet out of the red, announcing a net operating loss of AUD$5.2million, up from $2.1 million in the corresponding period last year. [ + ]

Medical diagnostics company Ambri (ASX:ABI) has announced plans to halve its workforce and is on the hunt for new medical diagnostic products to shore up its product pipeline after the suspension last year of its SensiDX project. [ + ]

Australian gene therapy company Benitec (ASX:BLT) is taking its novel AIDS therapy into a Phase I clinical trial in volunteers with AIDS-related lymphoma at the City of Hope Hospital in Duarte, California. [ + ]

Chemgenex Pharmaceuticals (ASX:CXS) will receive a AUD$720,000 milestone payment from its partner Vernalis for progress made on its depression and anxiety target discovery program. [ + ]

Melbourne-based Cryptome (ASX:CRP) has joined the ranks of Australian biotech companies sourcing potential products from overseas, with the acquisition of an option for an exclusive licence over a novel class of protein-derived anti-inflammatory compounds from the University of Virginia. [ + ]

Unlisted Australian horticulture group Oasis Horticulture has teamed up with Japanese beverage company Suntory in an R&D joint venture to develop new plant varieties for the international market. [ + ]

CSL (ASX:CSL) has reported a strong net profit of $160.1 million for the first six months of the 2004-2005 fiscal year, up more than 500 per cent on the figures reported last year. [ + ]

Dramatic board changes have been proposed at Sydney device company Polartechnics (ASX:PLT). [ + ]

When it was cloned in 1991, the sex-determining region, Y-chromosome (SRY) gene was hailed as the elusive 'master switch' that sets an genetically male embryo on the path to male development. But it is now clear that SRY is just the finger that flicks the real switch to 'male'. It's the transcription factor gene SOX9 that causes the embryo's indeterminate gonads to develop as testes, not ovaries [ + ]

An international study led by Australia's National Institute of Schizophrenia and Associated Disorders (NISAD) has shown, for the first time, that cognitive abnormalities in schizophrenia map closely to structural abnormalities in the brain. [ + ]

Norwood Immunology (AIM:NIM) CEO Richard Williams is planning a busy year. Along with an Australian trial of GnRH analogue in bone marrow transplant patients, the company is gearing up for preclinical trials Lupron's ability to induce tolerance to donor cells prior to transplantation. [ + ]

Glass Expansion has announced that its full range of products for ICP-AES and ICP-MS may now be purchased online through its website at www.geicp.com.

Tiny nematode worms that get 'legless' more rapidly than their peers when they ingest alcohol have led a San Franciso team to the gene that is the major determinant of susceptibility to alcoholism in worms -- and probably in humans as well. [ + ]

Brisbane's Agenix [ASX:AGX, NASDAQ OTC:AGXLY] has sold its loss-making Milton Pharmaceuticals subsidiary to an unnamed buyer. [ + ]

Metabolic Pharmaceuticals (ASX:MBP) has reported a half-year after-tax loss of AUD$6.3, up from $4.2 million in the corresponding period in 2003. That included $6.1 million of expenditure on research and development, up from $5.0 million in 2003. The company's statement of cash flows reveals it took a $500,000 stake in Neuren Pharmaceuticals' (ASX:NEU) IPO earlier this month. Metabolic has also contracted Neuren to conduct in vitro experiments to provide supporting data on the biochemistry of its growth hormone obesity drug AOD9604. [ + ]