CSIRO Plant Industry researchers have cloned the gene that probably laid the foundation for Australia's lucrative wheat industry more than a century ago. [ + ]

New Zealand's Crop and Food Research Institute has received approval from the country's Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) to conduct a contained field trial of genetically modified onions. [ + ]

Brisbane biomedical company Adipogen has received a new injection of venture capital to pursue a novel therapy for obesity that would involve blocking the proliferation of fat-storage cells, or adipocytes. [ + ]

One of the four patients to have been implanted with Ventracor's artificial heart device to date has died from an unrelated medical condition, the company (ASX: VCR) reported yesterday. [ + ]

The prospect of Australia's cotton industry returning to the continent's well-watered tropics has enticed a new player to test its transgenic wares against the insect monsters that ate the Ord. [ + ]

Melbourne drug-discovery company Cerylid Biosciences is ready to begin beating the bushes for natural immunomodulatory compounds for its new partner, a Japanese drugmaker. [ + ]

Melbourne company Cryptome Pharmaceuticals (ASX:CRP) has appointed Dr Jeffrey Travis to take over from Dr Warren Kinston as CEO. [ + ]

After receiving tidings of comfort and joy on Christmas Eve, Sydney-based biotech Peptech (ASX:PTD) has established a solid strategic position for the endgame of its corporate chess match with the two leading players in the rheumatoid arthritis antibody therapy business. [ + ]

In the middle of its AUD$10 million float, Melbourne pharmaceutical development company BioDiem has been buoyed by news that the US Food and Drug Administration has allocated $US50 million to boost production of influenza vaccines, which are in chronically short supply in North America. [ + ]

Meditech Research (ASX:MTR) has ended the year with the achievement of a major milestone, entering into an agreement with Danish biotechnology company Novozymes. [ + ]

Local biotechs Alchemia and Rockeby Biomed are set to list on the ASX next week after successfully raising $21 million and $4 million, respectively, in oversubscribed IPOs. [ + ]

Auckland-based biotech Genesis Research and Development Corporation has lopped its plant sciences branch and planted it in the market as a fully-owned but independently managed scion, AgriGenesis BioSciences. [ + ]

Almost exactly a year after the federal government named the National Stem Cell Centre (NSCC) as Australia's biotechnology centre of excellence, the first round of funding has been distributed to researchers at six institutions across Australia. [ + ]

CSL (ASX:CSL), which last week became the world's largest supplier of blood plasma products after its purchase of Aventis Behring, now aims to maximise its return from those products by developing a therapy for stroke. [ + ]

The Victorian College of Pharmacy's AUD$17 million Centre for Drug Candidate Optimisation has been officially opened in Parkville. [ + ]