New Zealand company Genesis R&D (NZX/ASX: GEN) has laid off more than half of the staff from its subsidiary AgriGenesis, due to a lack of success in raising capital for the spin-out company. [ + ]

Sydney-based devices company Polartechnics (ASX:PLT) today announced its product-sales revenue had increased four-fold to AUD$2.14 million for the financial year ended June 30 2004. [ + ]

Scientists and fishers will use deep ocean acoustic remote sensing techniques developed by CSIRO to help give long-term sustainability to the largest fishery in Australia's south-east.

Sydney-based Ventracor (ASX:VCR) sent investors into a small spin today, announcing the broadening of its VentrAssist artificial heart Pilot Trial to include heart failure patients on transplant waiting lists. [ + ]

Perth nano-biotech company Psivida (ASX:PSD) continues to add new patents to its bulging BioSilicon portfolio, and investors aren’t complaining. [ + ]

Queensland biotech CBio presented its Phase I clinical trial results at the World Congress of Immunology in Montreal last week, and is raising capital and readying itself for Phase II trials. [ + ]

With the close of its placement expected on 3 August, British biotech company Bone is well on its way to a backdoor listing on the Australian Stock Exchange through former WA property management company Revenir (ASX: REV). [ + ]

CyGenics (ASX: CYN) subsidiary Cytomatrix has secured a second year-long NIH contract worth US$272,000 for further development of its T cell technology. [ + ]

Californian therapeutic antibody developer KalosBios Pharmaceuticals has joined the long list of international companies picking the fruits of Australian medical research. [ + ]

Ask Alan Finkel what he would do differently if he started another company, and he’s quick to reply. “I wouldn’t start another company overseas,” he says. [ + ]

Biochemistry PhD student David Carter is examining cadaver breakdown and soil biology to provide answers to life's toughest question; what happens to us after we die?

Grasping the opportunities provided by advances in medical science, rather than succumbing to fears about the challenges involved, is the key to the biology revolution, the vice-president of the Australian Academy of Sciences Prof John Shine told the National Press Club this week. [ + ]

Plans to use a genetically modified myxoma virus to depopulate Australia’s rabbit-ravaged landscapes of the continent’s worst mammalian pest have suffered a setback. [ + ]

Scientists from around the world have agreed to collaborate on sequencing the complete eucalyptus genome, and formed the International Eucalyptus Genome Consortium at a meeting held in Hobart last week. [ + ]

Some of Amrad's larger shareholders are boosting their holdings in the Melbourne company (ASX:AML), as long-time Japanese investor Chugai divests itself of its 10 per cent stake in the company. [ + ]