Carbohydrate-based drug design and manufacture company Alchemia has secured two key patents on its technology platform that should aid its efforts to tie off a multimillion dollar fundraising exercise. [ + ]

Biosensor company Ambri will receive an injection of up to $15.7 million under an equity and technology licensing pact with Dow Corning Corp and diversified US biotech Genencor International. [ + ]

The $100 million Queensland BioCapital Fund, whose formation was announced five months ago by the State government, is finally swinging its doors open for business. [ + ]

Fiddle with an old recipe and you may get an unpalatable, but not always unpredictable result. [ + ]

The Gene Technology Regulator, Dr Sue Meek, has decided to "stop the clock" on two applications for commercial release of genetically modified canola while she waits for updated information on technology stewardship, crop management strategies and supply chain management. [ + ]

Gene discovery and drug development company diaDexus has signed a deal with the Queensland Institute for Medical Research (QIMR) concerning a novel molecule with potential for treating cancers in both males and females. [ + ]

Monash University spin-off CopyRat has entered into a joint venture with French company genOway to develop rat cloning technology. [ + ]

The decision by the world's largest private biotech, BattellePharma, to terminate its research agreement with Melbourne-based drug re-engineering company Eiffel Technologies will have little effect on the company's financial position, an Eiffel spokesman said today. [ + ]

What do certain anaesthetics, sedatives, and drugs for depression, anxiety and epilepsy have in common? [ + ]

Melbourne instrument manufacturer Vision BioSystems is claiming early international success for its new Bond immunochemistry and in situ hybridisation staining system. [ + ]

The latest round of NHMRC funding grants shows Queensland's boast of being the most decentralised state does not extend to medical research. [ + ]

Geneticists have nothing to show after more than a decade hunting for genes involved in bipolar disorder, or manic depression -- even in depression-haunted families in Iceland, and among Pennsylvania's Amish, the quarry has remained elusive. But a Sydney research team believes it may have cornered a gene that causes susceptibility to manic depression that could provide the long-sought entry point into the biochemical maze underlying the disorder. [ + ]

Melbourne devices company Pulmosonix is planning to start clinical trials for its two medical devices earlier than originally foreshadowed, according to a recent announcement by parent company Premier Bionics. [ + ]

With all the excitement over the human genome and its potential for increasing understanding of human disease, microbial disease research has slipped out of the limelight. [ + ]

Researchers at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) and the University of Melbourne are working on a project they hope will result in clear experimental guidelines and methods for mathematical analysis for microarrays. [ + ]