Raise your glasses to biotech
05 December, 2002 by Graeme O'NeillThe future is hammering on the ancient oak doors of two of the world's oldest biotechnology industries, beer and winemaking, both citadels of tradition and conservatism. In Australia, the wine industry is wide awake, and cautiously surveying the landscape for longer-term opportunities emerging from gene technology. The Australian wine industry, which has transformed itself during the past 30 years with a slew of innovations in viticulture, and new winemaking technologies, is enjoying the first fruits of the gene technology revolution -- but is in no hurry to grow GM vines.
Beating the bugs
04 December, 2002 by Melissa TrudingerThere is a complex and ongoing battle between humans and insect pests, according to Dr Phil Batterham, a researcher in the University of Melbourne's Department of Genetics and the deputy director and program leader at the ARC-funded Centre for Environmental Stress and Adaptation Research. Many chemical and biological weapons have been devised to control and prevent insects from attacking crops, but insects are highly adaptive and sooner or later they evolve their way around every weapon that is used against them.
Natural products targeted for potential drugs
04 December, 2002 by Melissa TrudingerNatural products provide a validated basis for protein-drug interactions that should be exploited as a tool for rational drug design, Griffith University's Prof Ron Quinn told delegates at the Australian Health and Medical Research Congress last week.
Bionomics hails new class of epilepsy drug
03 December, 2002 by Graeme O'NeillAn Australian research study published this week in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science explains why current drugs don't work on a common, inherited form of epilepsy -- and points the way to a new class of epilepsy therapeutics.
Taking Australian biotechnology to the world
03 December, 2002 by Iain ScottAustralian Biotechnology News and Factiva, a Dow Jones and Reuters Company, concluded an agreement this week that will see ABN's content distributed globally to over 1.5 million desktops.
Shareholder contact pays off for Meditech
03 December, 2002 by Melissa TrudingerAn innovative approach in reaching out to shareholders has raised $AU3 million for Melbourne-based biotech company Meditech Research.
Panbio appoints new CEO to drive expansion
29 November, 2002 by Pete YoungDiagnostics company Panbio has reached into the senior ranks of DuPont for a growth-oriented chief executive officer to oversee its next period of planned expansion.
Circadian to fund new antisense Alzheimer's project
29 November, 2002 by Graeme O'NeillMelbourne biomedical company Circadian Technologies has announced it will fund a project at Melbourne University to develop an antisense therapy for Alzheimer's disease.
Genetic Solutions wins the race for the tenderness test
28 November, 2002 by Pete YoungThe race to launch the first commercial DNA test kit identifying cattle which carry a gene associated with meat tenderness has been won by Australian agbiotech Genetic Solutions.
Carn the blues: Florigene aiming for horticulture's highest prize
28 November, 2002 by Graeme O'NeillRoses are red, and Melbourne biotech company Florigene wishes that violets were blue -- if they were, it would already have produced horticulture's most elusive prize: the world's first blue rose.
Local experts critical of proposed mouse chimera project
28 November, 2002 by Graeme O'NeillA proposed US experiment to produce a mouse for testing the organ- or tissue-forming capacity capabilities of human embryonic stem cells should not proceed -- at least, not with totipotent human ES cells, according to a leading Australian stem cell expert.
Science must help society, conference hears
27 November, 2002 by Melissa TrudingerA scientific call for action to provide solutions for disease problems in developing countries was the topic of the Merck Sharp and Dohme Lecture at the opening of the first Australian Health and Medical Research Congress in Melbourne this week.
VRI to use Proteome Systems platform to develop diagnostics
27 November, 2002 by Melissa TrudingerVRI BioMedical and Proteome Systems have signed a non-binding heads of agreement for a collaboration to develop some of VRI's diagnostic tests as point-of-care applications using Proteome Systems' proprietary diagnostic test platform.
High-profile agreements give Ambri global clout
26 November, 2002 by Pete YoungSydney biosensor specialist Ambri is leveraging newly-forged ties with two high-profile US corporates to negotiate lucrative R&D contracts with the US military.
New report pulls back the curtain on SA biotech
26 November, 2002 by Melissa TrudingerThe secrets of the South Australian bioscience sector have been revealed in a survey released last week by BioInnovation SA, the government-supported biotech industry development team.
