Industry News
CSIRO clinches Bayer CropScience alliance
CSIRO's highly successful alliance with Bayer CropScience has been extended in an agreement that will deliver benefits to farmers and grow Australia's R&D capabilities.
[ + ]Alchemia slashes workforce
One of the stars of Queensland’s biotech industry, biopharmaceutical company Alchemia, has sent shock waves through the sector by slashing staff by 30 per cent. [ + ]
Eiffel to collaborate with Aradigm
Eiffel Technologies has entered into a collaboration with US drug delivery company Aradigm Corporation. [ + ]
Norwood Abbey spins out immunology project
Norwood Abbey has spun out its immunology project into a separate company, which will be listed in Europe or the USA within the next 12 months. [ + ]
New find exposes apoptosis drug challenge
The three-dimensional structure of the anti-apoptosis protein Bcl-w has unexpectedly revealed a protective 'tail' which sits in a groove preventing cell death from being triggered accidentally, explaining why attempts at designing drugs capable of specifically triggering cell death may be more challenging than first appreciated. [ + ]
Kiwis hire former IMB chief to ID trans-Tasman opps
One of the fathers of Queensland's biotech industry, Prof Peter Andrews, has been hired by New Zealand to pinpoint promising opportunities for colloboration between the two regions. [ + ]
IBM, VPAC standardising bio-IT platform with $1m server
The amount of computing power available to Australian bioinformatics researchers continues to climb, with the Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing (VPAC) this week switching on a massive $1 million clustered server from IBM that will more than double the organisation's computing power. [ + ]
OGTR gives thumbs-up to GM canola varieties
Australia has taken the penultimate step towards growing its second transgenic crop -- the oilseed canola with yesterday's decision by the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator to release a risk-assessment and risk-management plan for Bayer CropScience's InVigor varieties, which contain three genes, two for hybrid vigour system, one for glufosinate resistance. [ + ]
GTG sues 'major US companies' for patent infringements
Melbourne company Genetic Technologies has filed lawsuits against three major US companies for infringement of the company's non-coding DNA patents. [ + ]
Govts urged to support homegrown tech
Start-ups are hard work and technology-based start-ups even harder, the CEO of one of Australia's best-known such ventures told last week's KCA commercialisation conference. [ + ]
Virax signs supply deal with US MedImmune
Virax Holdings has entered into a supply agreement with US biotechnology company MedImmune. [ + ]
DNA breakthrough could unlock evolution
The world's first fossil protein sequence has been carried out, making this a major scientific breakthrough, which has the potential to bring about changes in evolutionary theory.
[ + ]Feds block homegrown mass spec export
Ron Grey's company GBC Scientific Instruments makes one of the fastest and most sensitive mass spectrometers available. But the Victorian company has run into a big problem -- laws in Australia put into place to counter the development of weapons of mass destruction by other countries are making it almost impossible for the company to export its instruments. [ + ]
Spin-offs not always the answer: CSIRO business chief
Technology transfer, rather than spin-offs or other options, is the key to effective commercialisation at CSIRO, according to the organisation's recently appointed executive director of business development. [ + ]
Research strengths key to good tech transfer: Penn head
Eminent scientists should remain in the lab producing research results, rather than join a start-up company based on their work, according to the head of one of the most successful technology transfer offices in the US. [ + ]