Queensland University of Technology spin-off Tissue Therapies is seeking to raise AUD$3.5 million in an initial public offering of seven million shares at $0.50. [ + ]

Changes to the wording of the Australian Research Council's discovery grant eligibility criteria have left scientists at medical research institutes believing they are no longer eligible to apply for grants from the organisation. [ + ]

Amrad has received a second US$3 million milestone payment from Merck, Sharp and Dohme, bringing the total payments to the company under the terms of the agreement to $11 million to date out of a possible $112 million. [ + ]

South Australia's capabilities in biotechnology, agriculture and wine, earth and environmental sciences and chemistry and physics have received a major boost, with the appointment of four new Heads of School at the University of Adelaide's Faculty of Sciences.

The federal government has teamed up with industry group Science Industry Australia (SIA) to create a new action agenda. [ + ]

Peptech's (ASX:PTD) recent investment in UK domain antibody specialist Domantis took centre stage at the company's annual general meeting today, despite shareholder discontent regarding an employee performance share plan. [ + ]

The biotechnology industry is likely to be one of the beneficiaries of the forthcoming successor to the Backing Australia's Ability program, according to federal industry minister Ian Macfarlane. [ + ]

Shares in Biota Holdings fell more than 6 per cent yesterday, despite the company's announcement that it had reduced its operating loss by almost half, reporting a loss after tax of $3.1 million as compared to $5.5 million in 2002. [ + ]

Health officials lecture Americans every year on the importance of getting an influenza vaccine but it seems they are not even able to get a majority of their colleagues to do so. [ + ]

Researchers at the University of Western Australia have developed a novel method for detecting iron overload diseases using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). [ + ]

After announcing a $6m capital raising yesterday, Adelaide epilepsy specialist company Bionomics Limited (ASX:BNO, US OTC: BMICY) has wasted no time mounting a project to identify new drugs to treat inherited epilepsy and anxiety disorders. [ + ]

Antisense Therapeutics (ASX:ANP) has advanced its acromegaly project from research to development after seeing efficacy in animal studies for its antisense compound ATL1103, which targets the growth hormone receptor. [ + ]

The first mobile facility in the world to measure the energy efficiency of buildings and houses on-site will be launched by Deakin University

The chair of the NSW Agricultural Advisory Council on Gene Technology, Prof Tim Reeves, has expressed concern that anti-GM representatives on the council have breached its confidentiality code by claiming that the council had already decided to recommend a large-scale trial planting of genetically modified canola in NSW. [ + ]

An Australian geneticist has called for better balancing of ethical concerns with researchers' needs when it comes to developing guidelines for the collection of human genetic and genomic information into databases for research purposes. [ + ]