A five-nation oceanographic team is taking the first steps in a $3.6 million project studying the major flow of ocean currents between Asia and Australia and how they influence rainfall across Southern Australia and Indonesia.

The National Stem Cell Centre (NSCC) has signed a research collaboration agreement with Nephrogenix, the company responsible for commercialising outcomes from the Renal Regeneration Consortium (RRC), which is investigating kidney development and regeneration. [ + ]

Regenera (ASX: RGA) has received ethics committee approval to begin Phase III human clinical trials for its synthetic steroid drug Visagen at the Singapore Eye Research Institute. [ + ]

Starpharma (ASX: SPL) will move to the next stage of the Phase I clinical trial for its nanodendrimer-based vaginal microbicide VivaGel, after the US FDA approved a dose increase based on the interim trial results. [ + ]

Micro-organisms thriving in polluted urban areas are held largely responsible for the crumbling of cultural heritage sites worldwide. Now, scientists from the University of Portsmouth, England, are looking at ways to reverse the trend and put some of the bacteria to good use.

Investors in the initial public offerings (IPOs) of Australian biotechnology companies have done well over the past six years -- despite the fact that the shares of most of the newly listed companies are currently trading below the price at which they were first sold. [ + ]

Meditech Research (ASX: MTR) has appointed former CSL and Millennium Pharmaceuticals executive Dr Ian Nisbet as CEO to replace Chris Carter who stepped down on Friday, after a shareholder stoush in April forced his resignation. [ + ]

Circadian Technologies (ASX:CIR) has posted a AUD$5.8 million profit for the 2003-04 financial year, and the prospects of an even better year next year thanks to the recent acquisition of its investee company Axon Instruments by US firm Molecular Devices on July 1. [ + ]

Production facilities at Chemeq (ASX:CMQ) have finally come to life, with the company announcing that it has manufactured enough of the active pharmaceutical ingredient of its novel antimicrobial to verify the production process. [ + ]

Melbourne-based agbiotech company Hexima will make a small piece of biotech history in October by becoming the first homegrown Victorian company to trial a genetically modified field crop. [ + ]

Sydney pharmaceutical company Pharmaxis (ASX:PXS) has completed enrolling 600 asthma patients for a phase III trial of its patented asthma prognostic, Aridol. [ + ]

South Australian genomics company Bionomics (ASX:BNO) has shaken hands with Louisiana State University’s Health Sciences Centre (LSUHSC) on a landmark collaboration to explore the efficacy of the company’s gene-silencing constructs as a gene therapy for solid tumours. [ + ]

Meditech (ASX: MTR) is looking for a new CEO as CEO Chris Carter steps down, three months after a shareholder stoush forced his resignation from the company. [ + ]

Brisbane-based Benitec (ASX: BLT) has announced a loss of AUD$1.9 million for the quarter, and confirmed that it has just $4.65 million remaining in cash. [ + ]

Prima Biomed (ASX: PRR) subsidiary CancerVac began a Phase IIa clinical trial today to evaluate its immunotherapy in patients with ovarian cancer. [ + ]