Australia's first licences allowing research using excess human embryos were issued today by the National Health and Medical Research Council's embryo research licensing committee. [ + ]

Prima Biomed (ASX:PRR) has been cheered by clinical trial results from commercial partner Biomira. [ + ]

Idiosyncratic researchers who are stubbornly out of step with the fashions of science may be among Australia's more valuable assets when it comes to building a successful life science industry, an Australian Venture Capital Association briefing in Sydney heard today. [ + ]

Can an extract of shark cartilage and crustacean shells alleviate the pain and inflammation of symptoms of osteoarthritis, the most common disease of aging? [ + ]

Perth-based nanotechnology company pSivida (ASX: PSD) has raised $21 million in an international placement - enough cash to see the company through to 2006, when it expects its first revenues. [ + ]

Prof Doug Hilton, a researcher at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, has been awarded this year's GlaxoSmithKline award for research excellence, for his work on cell signalling. [ + ]

Breast-fed babies arouse more readily from deep sleep, Monash researchers have found, in a discovery that could help reduce deaths due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

Johnson & Johnson's first-quarter earnings have jumped 20 per cent on higher sales of prescription drugs and medical devices, prompting it to raise its full-year profit forecast. [ + ]

Shareholders of Biotech Capital (ASX:BTC) have approved a $3.8 million buyback of shares and options held by the Challenger Group. [ + ]

Bio Innovation South Australia has a special offer for Australian biotech companies eying the lucrative European market: set up in SA, and take a free one-month working holiday to Germany to court potential business and research partners and clients. [ + ]

Life Technologies (formerly Gradipore, ASX: GDP) has announced that it has moved into the second phase of its development agreement with US company Hematech. [ + ]

State of the art medicinal chemistry facilities were opened on the Murdoch University campus by the WA Minister for Development Clive Brown last week for biotech start up Epichem. [ + ]

Ventracor (ASX:VCR) today announced it has commissioned a new facility for manufacturing its VentrAssist artificial heart device. VCR will expand its current clean-room space, establishing a 260 square meter clean room and manufacturing facility in Sydney’s Chatswood. [ + ]

Melbourne company CogState (ASX: CGS) has acquired a second computer-based cognitive test through an agreement with Pfizer which gives the pharmaceutical company preferred rates to CogState's test and CogState a royalty-free licence to market the new test to other pharmaceutical companies. [ + ]

Shares in Melbourne drug-discovery company Prana Biotechnology (ASX:PBT, NASDAQ:PRAN) have surged by some 30 per cent after the Journal of Neuroscience published a new study last week that further validates the metal-ion theory of Alzheimer’s developed by Prana founder and Dr Ashley Bush. [ + ]