Melbourne company Virax (ASX: VHL) introduced shareholders to its strategy for partnering in a video conference with US bio-partnering specialists Clearview Projects yesterday, in a move designed to raise shareholder awareness of the partnering process and its importance to biotechnology companies. [ + ]

Reeling under a double-whammy from an allegedly fraudulent former employee and the collapse of supplier Pan Pahramaceuticals, beleaguered nutraceutical Vita Life Sciences had delisted from the ASX. [ + ]

Dendrimer nanotechnology company Starpharma has submitted an Investigational New Drug (IND) application to the FDA for Phase I clinical trials on its SPL7013 vaginal microbicide gel. [ + ]

Melbourne-based biotech EpiTan has sealed a deal with stockbroking firm Intersuisse Corporate Pty Ltd to underwrite $2,500,000 worth of shares in the company. [ + ]

ANU spin off Iliad Chemicals has gained $2million worth of research funding from life sciences VC Start-up Australia Ventures Pty. The money will be ploughed into investigation of complex molecule technology as an anti-cancer agent. [ + ]

Latest good news from the finance market comes in a report from market analysts, Bioshares. The report rates Australian biotech stocks as ‘surging ahead in the June quarter’ with an over 20 per cent rise across a basket of 43 sampled stocks. [ + ]

The world’s leading conference for computational biologists has seen a shift in emphasis and a drop in delegate numbers this year. [ + ]

Nobel Laureate James Watson, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, has withdrawn from attending the International Congress of Genetics due to a serious illness in the family. [ + ]

The publication of a paper on the three dimensional structure of a protein discovered and patented by Victorian company AGT Biosciences by scientists at a major pharmaceutical company last week was a wake-up call that AGT was competitive in the global arena, CEO Prof Greg Collier told Australian Biotechnology News today. [ + ]

South Australia's fledgling biotechnology industry has received the first of two shots in the arm with the commissioning of Hydra, a $AUD1.7 million system that is Australia's third-largest supercomputer and the largest of its type. [ + ]

A leading scientist is to be the inaugural director of the $50 million Australian Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, Queensland Premier, Peter Beattie, announced. [ + ]

Data-intensive research fields such as physics and life science will soon benefit from grid computing technology, a new method for analyzing massive amounts of data demonstrated in Australia for the first time at the recent ICCS 2003 (International Conference on Computational Science) in Melbourne. [ + ]

AgGenomics, a joint venture between Genetic Technologies and the Victorian State Government's Agriculture Victoria Services, has entered into a two year collaborative program with Horticulture Australia to identify genetic markers in strawberries. [ + ]

Perth biotechnology company Chemeq (ASX: CMQ) has raised a whopping $AUD25 million in a share placement to institutional and sophisticated investors. [ + ]

Professor Wayne Hall of the Queensland-based Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) has been named as one of the most published authors in his field - the genetics of addiction and mental disorders. [ + ]