A new report has found that US angel investors are pumping more than ever into the market, but that a shortage of later-stage capital is forcing them to stretch their investment into the post-seed stage. [ + ]

Cytopia (ASX:CYT) has sold its 22 per cent stake in unlisted Queensland biotech Xenome to Queensland Investment Corp (QIC) for more than AUD$3 million. [ + ]

Western society is wasteful of its water, a Sydney meeting heard today -- and the Minoans are to blame. [ + ]

A team of students at the Howard Florey Institute has won a national award for developing the most innovative product in the Young Achievers Australia Biotechnology Entrepreneur program for 2004. [ + ]

The federal government is gearing up to distribute more than AUD$200 million per year as part of its revised and re-badged grant scheme, Commercial Ready. [ + ]

New Zealand genomics and drug-development biotech Genesis Research and Development Corporation (NZSX/ASX:GEN) is keenly awaiting the unblinding of its Phase II clinical trial results for its AVAC vaccine for atopical dermatitis, after its UK partner's experimental vaccine failed to exhibit any benefit in children with eczema.. [ + ]

Sydney biosensor developer Ambri (ASX:ABI) has decided to bypass 'Go' with its SensiDx point-of-care biochip system, and fast-track second-generation chip capable of performing up to six different antibody tests simultaneously. [ + ]

BioDiem (ASX: BDM) has licensed its cell-culture production influenza vaccine to Dutch group Nobilon, part of Akzo Nobel's pharma group, for USD$8 million including milestone payments. [ + ]

Scientists have developed a new method for DNA amplification that could replace the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a technique that is invaluable for both medical diagnostics and basic research but which is confined to the laboratory. In the August issue of EMBO reports, Huimin Kong and colleagues describe a way to copy mass amounts of DNA that overcomes some of the limitations of this earlier technique.

Novogen (ASX: NRT) subsidiary Marshall Edwards (LSE AIM: MSH, Nasdaq: MSHL) has reported that its lead drug phenoxodiol can slow down the progression of hormone refractory prostate cancer. [ + ]

Shares in Solbec Pharmaceuticals (ASX:SBP) jumped almost 70 per cent to $0.21 today after preliminary results from a study conducted by the Tumour Immunology Group at the University of Western Australia indicated that the company's cancer drug, Coramsine, was effective in treating and preventing mesothelioma in a mouse model of the cancer. [ + ]

In the New Age of "natural" remedies, there's no more natural a remedy for pain than the brain's native analgesic, endomorphin. It's an easy synthesis: a simple pentapeptide, that would be an instant winner for headaches and chronic neuropathic pain, if only someone could bottle it in tablet form. [ + ]

The Australian government has quietly reversed its position on therapeutic cloning and embryonic stem cell research by co-sponsoring the Costa Rica-US led proposal to the UN to ban all forms of human cloning including so-called therapeutic cloning and the experimental use of embryonic stem cells. [ + ]

Imugene (ASX: IMU) has raised AUD$5 million through the sale of new shares primarily to institutional clients of Southern Cross Equities. The shares will be issued in two parts, with the first tranche occurring this week, and the second tranche following shareholder approval at an extraordinary general meeting to be held in January 2005. [ + ]

Melbourne drug-discovery biotech Cytopia has made it onto the dance card of the world's largest volunteer-supported cancer research organisation, Cancer Research UK after the UK agency agreed to take Cytopia's promising anti-cancer drug CYT997 into its clinical trial program. [ + ]