Fiona Wood reflects on her career choice as a plastic surgeon, combining this with clinical research and the challenges involved in improving clinical outcomes of burns patients. [ + ]

A team of German researchers has devised a novel, non-invasive way to make monitoring of blood glucose easier. [ + ]

Starpharma (ASX:SPL) has published a second set of preclinical data suggesting that cancer drugs produced with its dendrimer platform can eliminate bone marrow toxicity neutropenia. [ + ]

CSIRO scientists have discovered that eucalyptus trees in Western Australia's Kalgoorlie are drawing up gold particles from the earth via their root system and depositing it in their leaves and branches. Their findings have been published in the journal Nature Communications. [ + ]

Shares in Phosphagenics (ASX:POH) climbed 42% after the company reported strong plasma concentrations from the first in-human trial of opioid pain patch TPM/oxymorphone. [ + ]

When sourcing a concentration method for their microtitre plates containing oligonucleotides (oligos), researchers at high-throughput genome analysis centres must take care to choose an evaporator system that will not only provide fast drying, but also take good care of their samples. [ + ]

Establishing a small biotech company and getting products to market are just some of the challenges facing companies in the Australian biotech sector. [ + ]

Scorpions could hold the secret to better cancer treatment, according to researchers from the Queensland Tropical Health Alliance (QTHA). The alliance recently acquired a $1.2 million nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer and facility to investigate the structure of promising molecules, some of which are found in scorpion venom. [ + ]

The US FDA has for the third time rejected pSivida (ASX:PVA) licensee Alimera Sciences' NDA for diabetic macular edema treatment Iluvien. [ + ]

A biological clock embedded in our genomes may shed light on why our bodies age and how we can slow the process. [ + ]

Townsville City Council was keen to implement a laboratory information management system to create a more efficient process and better customer services. Their aims were to improve data quality, reduce time of manual data entry from instrumentation, reduce data transcription errors and improve business efficiency. And they have been successful. [ + ]

Researchers have demonstrated new multimodal optical microscopy technology which, when coupled with advanced image co-registration algorithms, can account for soft-tissue deformations that may occur over the timecourse of weeks and months. [ + ]

Life Technologies Corporation, a global biotechnology company, has announced that its GlobalFiler Express Kit has been approved by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation for use by laboratories generating DNA profiles for inclusion in the National DNA Index System (NDIS) CODIS Database. [ + ]

This year’s AusBiotech conference will focus on the transformation of the Australian biotech industry, following its evolution and the application of its bioactivity across areas such as agriculture, food technology and health. In this preview we provide a bumper sample of what’s in store for Brisbane at the end of October. [ + ]

Regeneus, a Sydney-based company with a strong pipeline of cell-based treatments derived from adipose tissue, raised $10.5m last month in a fully subscribed IPO. [ + ]