A $20 million plant biotechnology centre to explore ways of improving agricultural sustainability and develop plants resistant to drought, frost and salinity was opened recently at the University of Melbourne.

UniQuest Pty Limited, The University of Queensland's main technology commercialisation company, has unveiled the University's first formal technology incubator.

Brisbane's Progen Industries (ASX:PGL) will take on production of an anti-cancer therapeutic vaccine for Prima Biomed's (ASX:PRR) Cancer Vac subsidiary. [ + ]

Australian researchers have discovered two genes that are critical to understanding elite athletic performance, an Athens conference has heard. [ + ]

Sydney-based Brain Resource Company (ASX:BRC) has cracked into the biotechnology sector with a deal to provide its profiles of brain function and cognition to Biogen in the United States. [ + ]

Diagnostics group Visiomed (ASX:VSG) has entered a German research collaboration to develop surgical navigation systems for spinal procedures. [ + ]

Bone marrow stem cells have been used to treat five patients with severe angina in a Phase I clinical trial at St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne. [ + ]

Circadian Technologies (ASX:CIR) has added another string to its neuroscience bow with an investment in new Melbourne research. [ + ]

Both biotechnology companies and venture capitalists need to be more realistic about the opportunities and outcomes available to them, a British venture capitalist told a Melbourne forum yesterday. [ + ]

A newly-formed international consortium of scientists and lawyers has launched a bid to have human reproductive cloning declared a crime against humanity. [ + ]

Peptech's shares (ASX:PTD) nose-dived today, dropping as low as AUD$1.23 after news that the company was embroiled in another patent dispute over its anti-TNF patents, this time with licensee Abbott Laboratories. [ + ]

Norwood Abbey (ASX:NAL) is on track to list its immunology spin-off in the United Kingdom within six months. [ + ]

A complete molecular-scale picture of how plants convert sunlight to chemical energy has been obtained at Purdue University in the US, offering potential new insights into animal metabolism as well.

GroPep (ASX:GRO) has closed the book on its acquisition of Biotech Australia with the receipt of AUD$3.6 million final payment for the Roseville site. [ + ]

'Durum' means 'hard' in Latin -- but for wheatgrowers who have tried to grow high-value, high-protein durum wheats in the semi-arid regions of Victoria, SA an WA semi-arid zone, durum wheats are in the too-hard basket. [ + ]