Industry News
Polartechnics eyes US capital market
Capitalising on the successful release of its innovative Pap smear diagnostic into the European market, Polartechnics has dipped a toe into the US investment scene with the appointment of a New York investment banker as strategic advisor. [ + ]
AustCancer shuffles staff and direction
Australian Cancer Technology (AustCancer) has changed tack with new management, a new product line and a move from Perth to Sydney -- all in one day. [ + ]
2003 Eureka winners
This year's Eureka prizes were awarded last night in their usual black and red finery at a dinner function at Fox studios in Sydney. [ + ]
Herbal remedy fails cholesterol test - US study
An herbal remedy derived from the mukul myrrh tree and used in India to relieve heart symptoms actually raised cholesterol levels instead of lowering them as advertised, researchers said. [ + ]
Intel chips into a new market
Intel, chip maker to millions of personal computers across the world, is looking hard at the next emerging market -- biotech devices. [ + ]
New bio-IT firm aims to sort out the rank and file
It's one thing to design a system that can allow a library of 100,000 compounds to be screened against a protein structure in a day to assess each compound's structural compatibility with the target site. It's another to offer a way to score or rank the compounds according to the best-predicted fit. [ + ]
Acrux claims success in Phase I anxiety trial
Melbourne drug delivery company Acrux has successfully completed a Phase I clinical study for its proprietary buspirone metered-dose transdermal spray (MDTS) for the treatment of anxiety. [ + ]
$42.5m neuroscience facility opens
Brain and mind disorders, watch out -- Australia's neuroscience researchers are coming after you. [ + ]
Neuro facility teams with UK firm to develop MND model
A commercial alliance has been formed between the National Neuroscience Facility (NNF) and UK company Danio Labs, to develop a zebrafish model for Motor Neurone Disease (MND) and other neurodegenerative diseases. [ + ]
New transgene delivery technique takes a traditional route
An Italian-Australian research partnership has demonstrated a potentially revolutionary technique for producing transgenic animals, using nature's own time-tested vector for delivering genes to eggs: sperm. [ + ]
Eiffel to collaborate with UK asthma company
Melbourne biotech Eiffel Technologies has signed an agreement with a UK-based drug delivery company, Meridica, to reengineer asthma therapeutics for use in a new technology inhalation device. [ + ]
Evogenix teams with UK firm Domantis
EvoGenix has signed an agreement with UK-based Domantis to apply its protein evolution and optimisation technology to one of Domantis's domain antibody therapeutic leads. [ + ]
From eucalypt survival to Wollemi Pine decline
The Charles Sturt University (CSU) botanist who discovered the secret bushfire survival skills of the eucalypt has turned his attention to a suspected 'design flaw' in the endangered Wollemi Pine.
[ + ]Sugar industry sweetened by biotech research centre
The Australian sugar industry will receive a huge boost when the $54 million Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Sugar Industry Innovation through Biotechnology opens for business in Queensland this month.
[ + ]West Nile lookalike gives vaccine hope
Researchers at the University of Queensland have developed a clone of the locally endemic Kunjin virus, and successfully trialled in mice it as a West Nile virus (WNV) vaccine. [ + ]