With the close of its placement expected on 3 August, British biotech company Bone is well on its way to a backdoor listing on the Australian Stock Exchange through former WA property management company Revenir (ASX: REV). [ + ]

CyGenics (ASX: CYN) subsidiary Cytomatrix has secured a second year-long NIH contract worth US$272,000 for further development of its T cell technology. [ + ]

Californian therapeutic antibody developer KalosBios Pharmaceuticals has joined the long list of international companies picking the fruits of Australian medical research. [ + ]

Ask Alan Finkel what he would do differently if he started another company, and he’s quick to reply. “I wouldn’t start another company overseas,” he says. [ + ]

Biochemistry PhD student David Carter is examining cadaver breakdown and soil biology to provide answers to life's toughest question; what happens to us after we die?

Grasping the opportunities provided by advances in medical science, rather than succumbing to fears about the challenges involved, is the key to the biology revolution, the vice-president of the Australian Academy of Sciences Prof John Shine told the National Press Club this week. [ + ]

Plans to use a genetically modified myxoma virus to depopulate Australia’s rabbit-ravaged landscapes of the continent’s worst mammalian pest have suffered a setback. [ + ]

Scientists from around the world have agreed to collaborate on sequencing the complete eucalyptus genome, and formed the International Eucalyptus Genome Consortium at a meeting held in Hobart last week. [ + ]

Some of Amrad's larger shareholders are boosting their holdings in the Melbourne company (ASX:AML), as long-time Japanese investor Chugai divests itself of its 10 per cent stake in the company. [ + ]

Life science companies - from start-ups to listed biotechs - featured highly in the latest round of Commonwealth R&D Start funding, it was revealed yesterday. [ + ]

Researchers at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR) have struck a formal deal with recently-listed Tissue Therapies (ASX:TIS) to boost the yield and quality of dendritic cells for their cancer vaccine using the company's cellular growth enhancer VitroGro. [ + ]

Proteome Systems CEO Keith Williams has described as "highly speculative" a media report this morning which suggested his company might be valued only at AUD$100 million when it lists on the ASX this year, rather than the $300 million valuation it had hoped for. [ + ]

It began as a routine trial of a therapeutic vaccine for melanoma, but it had a spectacular and unexpected outcome -- all but two of the 19 patients treated with the vaccine are still alive two years after beginning treatment. [ + ]

Starpharma (ASX:SPL) has received two competitive linkage grants, worth a total of AUD$440,000 over the next three years, from the Australian Research Council to further develop pharmaceutical applications of its proprietary dendrimer macromolecules. [ + ]

Dr Susan Clark from the Sydney Cancer Centre and the Garvan Institute has been awarded a major international prize for her contribution to DNA methylation research over the last 10 years. [ + ]