Sydney-based company Sirtex Medical has been awarded the Humanitarian Benefit Device of the Year 2002 for its SIR-Spheres liver cancer treatment by Frost and Sullivan, a US-based market consulting and analyst group. [ + ]

Acting chairman Brett Heading introduced a "new" Autogen to friends and supporters of the company today at the launch of its new high-throughput genotyping facility at the Toorak campus of Deakin University in Melbourne. [ + ]

The BioMelbourne Network has received a boost from the Victorian government in the form of $750,000 funding over the next three years to launch the organisation as an independent state-based biotechnology agency. [ + ]

If you wanted to show off the power of a new tool for identifying potentially therapeutic proteins, you couldn't do better than running a routine demonstration and chancing upon a long-sought Factor X that wards off AIDS. It happened this year to US-based company Ciphergen Biosystems, which has developed a new protein-hunting technology called ProteinChip. [ + ]

Perth skin replacement company Clinical Cell Culture (C3) has caught the attention of Nasdaq-listed US artificial skin specialist Integra Life Sciences Corporation. [ + ]

The malaria parasite genome has been sequenced and is already revealing novel drug targets that could lead to effective treatment of the disease.

Life science researchers at CSIRO will soon get access to a powerful new computing cluster as the nation's largest scientific organisation prepares for the February launch of a dedicated bioinformatics supercomputer. [ + ]

Life science related infrastructure projects have been funded to the tune of nearly $10.5 million in the latest round of Australian Research Council linkage, infrastructure and equipment (LIEF) grants. [ + ]

Prefer your hamburger rare? Big beef-eating countries have been experiencing an epidemic of 'hamburger disease' in recent years, caused by pathogenic strains of the gut microbe E. coli that originate in animals. [ + ]

A young biotech company founded by two Macquarie University scientists has attracted $2 million in funding from venture capital firm Nanyang Ventures. [ + ]

Melbourne-based company Cellestis has signed an agreement with Danish company Statens Serum Institut that it said signals a new era in tuberculosis testing and research. [ + ]

Sydney-based company Proteome Systems has teamed up with big US services company Charles River Laboratories to create a new joint venture company, Charles River Proteomics Services. [ + ]

In a significant advance, scientists have discovered some of the genes responsible for the development of insecticide resistance in mosquitoes. The findings will play an important role in combating the world's biggest killer, malaria.

Reported plans to sack up to 26 staff from CSIRO's Division of Land and Water have touched off warnings about the organisation's long-term health from Federal Opposition and union sources. [ + ]

The 2002 ASBMB Lemberg Medal has special significance for its recipient, Prof Philip Board of the Australian National University. [ + ]