Listed biotech Ambri Ltd has laid off 15 staff in response to unexpected manufacturing problems in scaling up its biosensor technology for commercial production. [ + ]

A Princeton chemist has developed a general mathematical system for designing materials that perform two functions at once, even when the desired properties sometimes conflict with each other.

An Australian scientist has made a discovery which is electrifying world fungal biology - a new truffle genus related to the famous Amanita family, or fairy toadstools.

A senior UNSW researcher is part of an international science collaboration, funded jointly by the European Union and the Australian Government under the Innovation Access (International Science and Technology) program, to study drinking water risk management.

Australian Biotechnology News will be closed for the holidays, until January 6, 2003. [ + ]

Milk is the first food that any mammal tastes, a fluid perfectly formulated by nature for the nutritional and developmental needs of newborn mammals. [ + ]

A young biotech that is developing technology to improve racehorse performance is easily outpacing the field when it comes to attracting development funding. [ + ]

Listed company BioProspect has signed a pact with a second major drug developer interested in testing its library of compounds extracted from Australian plants. [ + ]

CSIRO is losing the services of one of the country's premier biostatisticians, Dr Mervyn Thomas, who is leaving to launch his own consultancy in the private sector. [ + ]

Researchers, funded by Meditech, at Curtin University of Technology in Perth have identified carbohydrate compounds that specifically bind to proteins involved in asthma, atopic dermatitis and other inflammatory responses. [ + ]

Singapore-based stem cell company ES Cell International (ESI) has acquired patent rights to technology relating to the transformation of stem cells into insulin-producing cells from US company Curis. [ + ]

A number of listed biotechs named by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) as facing potential solvency problems are crying foul. [ + ]

A group which explores the living world for fresh ideas about how to design and manage organisations has been launched.

As a desperate measure to keep alive elite dairy and beef cattle herds suffering in one of the worst droughts of the past century, Australia's livestock industries are moving to ship in maize from the US. [ + ]

Genetraks, a start-up biotech developing blood tests for use in pre-race evaluation of animals such as racehorses, has received a $6 million injection of venture capital. [ + ]