Small biotech companies face investor resistance to mergers and acquisitions, a leading British biotech CEO told attendees at a briefing in Melbourne on Tuesday. [ + ]

New British biotech company Vernalis expects to complete Phase I clinical trials of a powerful new painkiller discovered by Monash University scientists by the middle of next year. [ + ]

Benitec Limited, CSIRO and the Queensland Department of Primary Industries, have announced a strategic agreement that will accelerate Australia's lead in the global commercialisation of DNA Directed RNA interference, a breakthrough gene silencing technology.

The latest company to jump on the IPO bandwagon is CogState, which filed its prospectus with the ASX mid-last week. [ + ]

Australian researchers have their first bug in the bank: a full genome map and complete DNA sequence of the 3900-odd genes that make up the spirochete bacterium Leptospira. [ + ]

A discovery made with CSIRO's Parkes radio telescope in eastern Australia may have brought forward the day when astronomers will directly detect cosmic gravity waves for the first time.

A group of leading international agricultural and food scientists says increased food production by GM herbicide-tolerant crops could actually benefit the environment and enhance biodiversity in Britain and Europe by allowing unused farmland to rededicated as conservation reserves. [ + ]

If computing power were water, Australia's drought would be rapidly coming to a close. Thanks to lowering costs and steadily improving technology, Australian life scientists and other researchers are rapidly gaining access to unprecedented amounts of computing power to support their work. [ + ]

Marshall Edwards, the US subsidiary of Novogen (ASX:NRT), has raised US$10.1 million through the exercise of expiring warrants by shareholders. [ + ]

Australian biotechnology pioneer Florigene, a subsidiary of Australian agricultural company Nufarm, is being sold off to long-time joint venture partner Suntory. [ + ]

Maverick molecular geneticist Richard Jefferson is in New York this week to accept a prestigious Scientific American award as one of the magazine's 50 Global Technology Leaders of 2003. [ + ]

When Florey Institute epilepsy researcher Dr Steve Petrou showed the electroencephalogram trace to his colleague, Prof Sam Berkovic, the veteran clinician recognised it immediately. [ + ]

The humble yeast can provide vital lessons in coping with stress, according to researchers from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in England. Dr Jan Quinn told delegates at a meeting of the Society for General Biology how she and colleagues have tracked stress responses in yeast to give a new understanding of how cells cope with oxidative stress.

Meditech Research (ASX:MRL) has added AUD$2 million to its coffers through a shareholder purchase plan, bringing the total capital raised recently to $6.8 million. [ + ]

A Queensland research team has developed the world's first rapid DNA test to identify methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). [ + ]