Australian and US defence interests have signed a $4.6 million contract to conduct a controlled scramjet experiment at Mach 10, or 10 times the speed of sound, at Woomera next year. UNSW at Australian Defence Force Academy is a partner in the project.

The President of the Australian Academy of Science, Dr Jim Peacock, has warned that governments could do “irreparable and lasting harm” by seeking to play safe when confronted by controversial technological change. [ + ]

Nanotechnology company pSivida's (ASX: PSD) UK subsidiary pSiMedica has signed a collaborative agreement with the University of Pittsburgh to evaluate the use of BioSilicon as a delivery platform for the university's proprietary DNA vaccine technology. [ + ]

The European Patent Office's decision to revoke a key patent on a breast cancer test owned by Utah-based Myriad Genetics will not prevent Myriad's Australian licensee, Genetic Technologies Ltd (ASX: GTG) providing the test in Australia and Asia. [ + ]

The Victorian State Government will fund another round of the Science Technology Innovation Infrastructure Grants program (STII), providing $60 million to supports biomedical, environmental, agricultural, manufacturing and ICT infrastructure projects. [ + ]

Australian Cancer Technologies (AustCancer, ASX: ACU) is the latest Australian company to announce an acquisition of a US company, with its proposal to acquire US vaccine developer Galenica Pharmaceuticals for around US$5 million in shares. [ + ]

The future of the Victorian wheat industry has moved from a biosecure glasshouse into a small, netted field plot at the International Centre for Cereal Breeding (CIMMYT) in Mexico. [ + ]

Almost two months ago, the Victorian Labor government stunned the state's biotechnology industry by imposing a four-year, legislated moratorium on genetically modified (GM) canola cropping. [ + ]

Cell therapeutics company Living Cell Technologies has issued a prospectus to raise almost AUD$7 million through both a rights issue and a general issue. [ + ]

An independent trial of the polymeric antimicrobial developed by Perth pharmaceutical company Chemeq (ASX:CMQ) has confirmed the drug’s potential to improve disease control in the poultry industry, while transforming its knife-edge economics. [ + ]

The CEO of Perth-based biotech Regenera, Tony Fitzgerald, said today that he expected the company’s offer to close next week, oversubscribed, ready for a June listing. [ + ]

Xceed Biotechnology has listed on the ASX (ASX: XBL) at a premium to its placement price of AUD$0.20. At the time of writing the telco turned biotech company, was trading at $0.26, down almost 20 per cent from its opening price of $0.30. [ + ]

Melbourne biotech Anadis Limited (ASX:ANX) has announced the first sale to China of its bovine colostrum-based nutraceutical – a 3-tonne consignment destined to be used as a health food by the Chinese military and other agencies, to build immunity to enteric diseases. [ + ]

The Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) has been re-launched as a Bio21 initiative following the receipt of $90,000 over three years from the Victorian State government Department of Industry, Innovation and Regional Development's Office of Science and Technology for the program. [ + ]

Leading-edge technology is being used by two CSIRO Livestock Industries' research teams to identify genes that enable sheep to resist intestinal parasites.