Crunching the numbers from multivariate statistics sounds a rather dry topic to wet lab specialists, but a group of CSIRO researchers has taken a rather philosophical approach to managing the data mountain. [ + ]

An aberrant immune response - also observed in the bird flu virus H5N1 - may be the reason why the 1918 influenza pandemic killed so many healthy adults. [ + ]

Cambridge University researchers have proposed that stem cells differentiate much earlier in the embryonic development process than previously thought. [ + ]

A Princeton University study suggests it may be possible to deactivate viruses such as HIV indefinitely with the flick of a genetic switch. [ + ]

Widespread consultation has begun in a review of the use and supply of chemicals of security concern to prevent their possible use in a terrorist incident.

AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squib have joined forces to develop two compounds to treat type 2 diabetes. [ + ]

The genome of the Trichomonas vaginalis parasite, responsible for a common sexually transmitted disease, has been sequenced. [ + ]

Australian hospitals will be involved in a global Phase III clinical trial of a potential cancer vaccine. [ + ]

University of Rochester Chemistry Department researchers have developed a method for rapidly testing DNA. The method can be used to help forensics labs identify criminals, test ponds and pools before children swim in them, and identify harmful genetic sequences in medical research, to name only a few applications. The procedure quickly and inexpensively identifies genetic sequences in any sample of DNA.

Professor Brandon Wainwright, cancer and cystic fibrosis researcher, is the new director of an Australian bioscience flagship, the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) at the University of Queensland (UQ).

The US-based Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has released two new, freely accessible protocols to help scientists understand the movement and growth of cells. [ + ]

A comprehensive analysis of influenza A epitopes, the critical sites on the virus that are recognised by the immune system, has been published by researchers from California's La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology (LIAI). [ + ]

A University of Calgary professor in the Haskayne School of Business has recently published his magnum opus on the subject of procrastination – and it''s only taken him 10 years.

A systematic analysis of the medical literature shows that nutrition studies'' conclusions correlate with who funds them – much like the bias found for pharmaceutical studies, but with potentially greater public health implications.

Applications for the Advancing BioBusiness Award, being piloted by drug company Merck Sharpe & Dohme (MSD) and not-for-profit networking organisation Advance, close on 25 January, 2007. [ + ]