NSW companies dominate fourth-round BIF funding

More than 40 organisations -- nearly half of them in NSW -- will share nearly $AUD10 million from the fourth round of the federal government's Biotechnology Innnovation Fund (BIF) grants announced today.

The grants have been offered to researchers in organisations ranging from small private companies such as NSW bioinformatics specialist BioLateral (for bioinformatics learning materials) to public listed biotechs such as VRI Biomedical (oral vaccine for bronchitis), Prana Biotechnology (immunotherapy for Alzheimer's disease) and Solbec Pharmaceutical (research on a novel anti-cancer agent).

NSW-based entities dominated the round with 19 organisations taking $4.2 million of the grants on offer, followed by Victoria (about $1.75 million spread between eight recipients), Queensland ($1.5 million), and Western Australia (approximately $1.2 million). South Australia, Northern Territory and Tasmania were offered four grants totalling about $650,000.

BIF round 4: the complete list

NSW

EnGeneIC Drug Delivery Systems $250,000 Development of a novel drug delivery system which will combine drug biosynthesis and specific target delivery Contact: Jennifer McDiarmid

Feedtech Australia $140,000 Conversion of sugar cane bagasse in to stock feed Contact: Phil Miller

G2 Therapies $250,000 Discovery of inhibitors as new drug candidates for rheumatoid arthritis Contact: Charles Mackay

Acyte Biotech $250,000 Targeted selection as a means of rapidly isolating highly expressing CHO cell clones Contact: Peter Gray

UCOM Six $250,000 Pre-clinical investigation of novel platinum compounds as anti-cancer agents Contact: Shane Story

Aza Research $216,854 Validated diabetes drug discovery system Contact: Jon Izant

BioLateral $226,000 Development of bioinformatic e-learning resources Contact: Tim Littlejohn

Droneon $224,000 Shape Memory stent for the treatment of chronic deep venous insufficiency Contact: Jamie Platt

Unitract $240,658 Single-use retractable auto-disable (AD) syringe Contact: George Sim

ViroTarg $250,000 Validation of several strains of oncolytic enteroviruses for the treatment of breast cancer and prostate cancer Contact: Soozy J Smith

Biosignal $250,000 Anti-bacterial contact lenses Contact: Rohan McDougall

DermaTech Laboratories $180,000 Biological Regime combining two antimicrobial agents Contact: Russell McMurray

Fluorotechnics $250,000 New fluorescent labels for diagnostics and proteomics Contact: Duncan Veal

Daltray $53,100 A safer rigid sigmiodoscope Contact: David Lubowski

Portland Orthopaedics $250,000 Development of acetabular cup for use in total hip replacement Contact: Ronald Sekel

PacMab $249,229 Humanised monoclonal antibodies for cancer therapy Contact: Malcolm Castle

Psiron $227,084 Efficacy of a topical gold/steroid treatment for atopic dermatitis Contact: Julie Nutting

BioAg $250,000 Isolation and production of Australian abuscular mycorrhizae (VAM) inocula for use in agriculture and horticulture Contact: Antony Barton

VRI BioMedical $250,000 Therapeutic oral vaccine for the prevention of acute exacerbation of chronic bronchitis Contact: Peter French

Northern Territory

Delis Nominees, trading as Jabiru Tropical Orchards $250,000 Using NIR as a non-destructive system to measure the rate of starch-sugar conversion in fruit Contact: Peter Delis

Queensland

Alive Technologies $250,000 Alive Wireless Health Monitoring System Contact: B Satchwell

Nanomics Biosystems $250,000 Gene Expression profiling Using colloidal nano-geneballs Contact: Matt Trau

Thrombostat $250,000 Development of a novel antithrombotic drug Contact: Lisa Bidwell

Xenome $250,000 Development of new drug for brain disorder Contact: Roger Drinkwater

BioProspect $249,200 Use of Eromophila oil as a termite repellent. and barrier models. Contact: Selwyn Snell

Colocare Research $248,604 Pouchless colostomy care system Contact: Peter Devine

South Australia

Medvet Science $50,000 Application of a synthetic peptide-based serological test for 'rattles' in foals Contact: Frances Guyett

Flinders MediTech $245,575 Medical manikins, aids and training devices Contact: John Turner

Tasmania

Marine Harvest $90,000 A system to detect, manage and eliminate nodavirus Contact: Craig Foster

Victoria

Polychip Pharmaceuticals $250,000 Contact: Graeme Kaufman

Iliad Chemicals $250,000 Pre-clinical investigation of tubulin polymerisation inhibitors as anti-cancer agents Contact: Bernard L Flynn

Cortical $250,000 Development of small molecule antagonists of MIF Contact: Eric Morand or Magdy Iskander

MuriGen $250,000 Validation of a large-scale mouse screen to discover therapeutic targets that will cure human diseases Contact: John Grace

Prana Biotechnology $227,252 Immunotherapy for Alzheimer's disease Contact: Diane Angus

Radical Biotechnology $250,000 A therapeutic treatment and preventative for cardiovascular disease Contact: Christopher Nave

bioRevive $250,000 Metabolic profiling for the personalised health treatment of breast cancer chemotherapy patients Contact: William Crothers

Cyclotek (Aust) $250,000 Scale-up production of the positron emission tomography (PET) Contact: David Krenus

Endogene $60,000 Self-propelling disposable endoscopes Contact: Igor Tchepikov

Western Australia

Clinical Cell Culture $156,000 Activated autologous cell culture and delivery Contact: Fiona Wood

Agri-Biotech $250,000 Delivery of passive immunity against Helicobacter pylori through antibodies in immune milk Contact: Guan Tay

Ag-ID $175,000 Integri-Tag system Contact: Josef Pfistershammer

CollTech Australia $250,000 Industrial scalability of the extraction and purification of collagen from ovine sources Contact: David Kennedy

Conve $250,000 Development of products with anti-microbial activity Contact: John Dawson

Solbec Pharmaceuticals $196,884 Development of SBP002, as an immunological priming agent for the treatment of malignant mesothelioma. Contact: Steven Carter