Cortical, a spin-out from Monash University in Melbourne, has closed a deal worth up to AUD$1 million with US biotech Genzyme to collaborate on the development of oral drugs for inflammatory diseases based on Cortical's small molecule antagonists of the cytokine macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF). [ + ]

Sufferers of type-two diabetes may soon be able to inhale rather than inject their insulin thanks to Melbourne researchers who have re-engineered the insulin molecule.

A Phase II clinical study under way in Melbourne has confirmed the promise of metal-chelating agents for treating -- and perhaps even preventing -- the devastating neurogenerative disorder Alzheimer's disease. [ + ]

Medical Developments International (ASX:MVP) floated on the ASX on Monday at AUD$0.495 -- almost double its IPO placement price of $0.25. [ + ]

Western Australian company CollTech is aiming to raise up to AUD$5 million in its IPO to build a collagen extraction and purification facility, based on its novel and proprietary method for extracting the protein from sheep skins. [ + ]

AusBiotech members have elected Johnson & Johnson Research managing director Susan Pond, venture capitalist Leigh Farrell and former Amrad managing director Sandra Webb as corporate directors to its board, after a tight race between nine candidates. Western Australian Biomedical Research Institute director Simon Carroll was also re-elected as an institutional director. [ + ]

They seek it here, they seek it there, but it remains hidden in the genetic thickets of flowering and seed development. A place in history awaits its finder. [ + ]

Adelaide biotechnology company Bionomics (ASX:BNO, US OTC:BMICY) has found a friendly American bloodhound to help it track down new genes involved in epilepsy -- the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. [ + ]

Leading Australasian biscuit manufacturer Arnotts has reacted to the threat of a consumer demonstration against its products in New Zealand by renewing its commitment to avoid the use of GM ingredients. [ + ]

Perth-based pharmaceutical company Chemeq (ASX:CMQ) has announced that patents on its polymeric molecules to control microbial diseases in livestock have been approved in the US, Europe, Eurasia and China. [ + ]

Melbourne therapeutic vaccine company Virax (ASX:VHL) has taken its hepatitis B treatment into the pre-clinical development phase. [ + ]

Adelaide company TGR Biosciences has received a grant from the Gardiner Foundation to look for bioactives in milk. [ + ]

Gradipore (ASX: GDP) has raised AUD$2.7 million in a placement of six million shares at $0.45 to institutional investors. [ + ]

A groundbreaking international collaboration is quietly underway at The University of New South Wales.

Parents visiting the doctor for an ultrasound of their unborn baby will be able to 'touch' as well as see their baby with new technology being developed at Deakin University.