Peplin's share price has dropped 30 per cent today (Monday) on heavy trading after the company announced late on Friday that its collaboration with Allergan was to be discontinued, and all rights for the development and commercialisation of the company's topical skin cancer drug, PEP005 Topical, as well as data and IP generated during the collaboration, are to be returned to the Brisbane-based company. [ + ]

Independent clinical studies performed in the US, Europe and Australia have verified the efficacy of Sirtex Medical's (ASX:SRX) SIR-Spheres liver cancer treatment. [ + ]

Claims by anti-GM activists that the Victorian government and Bayer CropScience are putting farmers' livelihoods at risk, by keeping secret the locations of genetically modified canola trials, have been scotched with the revelation that they have known the location of at least one participating farm for more than a year. [ + ]

Yet another public opinion poll has found that Australians want a substantial increase in funding for medical research. [ + ]

Astrophysicists from Cambridge and New Mexico are to join in creating the world’s most ambitious optical astronomical telescope array based on a concept pioneered in the UK.

Mathematician Dr Bob Anderssen has been awarded the George Szekeres Medal for his outstanding research achievements.

US biotech company Bioaccelerate will invest AUD$1.88 million into Australian Cancer Technologies (AustCancer, ASX:ACU) through a private share placement of 4,893,301 ACU shares at $0.384 per share. [ + ]

Former WA biotechnology company Q-Vis (ASX:QVL) has risen from the ashes to reinvent itself as Salus Technologies. [ + ]

Antisense Therapeutics (ASX: ANP) announced this week it would establish a level 1 American Depository Receipts (ADR) program in the US through the Bank of New York. [ + ]

For Dr John McKinley, CEO of Brisbane RNA-interference therapeutics developer Benitec (ASX:BLT), the power and promise of RNAi technology is captured in one word: druggability. [ + ]

These are exciting times in medicine: the era of gene-targeting drugs has arrived, promising new standards in safety, selectivity and rational drug design. Antisense oligonucleotides are the best known examples of gene-targeting therapeutic agents. [ + ]

Melbourne's Prima Biomed (ASX:PRR) is aiming to raise between $5 and $10 million over the next two weeks to fund its research programs - particularly its Panvax vaccine technology. [ + ]

The first four patients with inoperable liver cancer involved in a Phase IIa clinical trial of an in situ radiotherapy treatment developed by Perth nano-biotech company Psivida (ASX:PSD) have experienced regressions of up to 60 per cent in their tumours. [ + ]

Organisers of LABbuild 2004, a specialist conference for the design, management and maintenance of science and research facilities, have confirmed that several top industry experts will be presenting at the three-day conference.

Cross-linked oligomers of beta-amyloid (AB) may be the primary neurotoxic agent in Alzheimer's disease according to Rob Moir, an expatriate Australian researcher in Rudolph Tanzi's Genetics and Aging Research Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University. [ + ]