Steve Burrill, long time money man for the IT and biotech industries, visited Australia last week to raise $200million for a new biotech fund. He described this decade as being of such importance that it will be remembered in 1000 years' time. ABN met with him, and asked why. Jeremy Torr reports. [ + ]

The National Stem Cell Centre (NSCC) has recruited expatriate Australian scientist Dr Stephen Livesey to be the chief scientific officer of the Centre, Victorian Premier Steve Bracks has announced on the eve of the BIO2003 conference in Washington DC. [ + ]

Consumable and mining chemical company Sigma is reported as being latest in the queue to buy TGA-smitten Pan Pharmaceuticals. Other bidders are believed to include API and major Pan creditor Mayne [ + ]

Melbourne biotechnology company Amrad has formed a research collaboration with Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) with a total worth of $US112 million plus royalties to develop therapeutic drugs for asthma, respiratory diseases and cancer, the company announced today at the BIO2003 conference in Washington DC. [ + ]

In a release described as “correcting the record”, CSIRO has fired a salvo over Benitec and Queensland Department of Primary Industries (QDPI)’s bows on gene silencing patent claims. [ + ]

CSIRO Bioinformatics is taking its latest statistical toolkit to Bio, with the intention of tapping into the burgeoning microarray analysis market. [ + ]

Data-intensive research fields such as physics and life science will soon benefit from grid computing technology, a new method for analysing massive amounts of data demonstrated in Australia for the first time at the recent ICCS 2003 (International Conference on Computational Science) in Melbourne. [ + ]

Analysing what might seem to be meaningless masses of numbers can lead to important discoveries, such as a powerful new anti-cancer drug. But you need to use the right statistical tools, according to Dr David Mitchell of CSIRO Bioinformatics.

The OGTR has stopped the clock for a second time on Bayer CropScience's application for commercial release of its InVigor genetically modified canola. [ + ]

The Garvan Institute celebrated 40 years of sharp end research into cancer and associated diseases last week -- and in the process gained over $1million in research funds. [ + ]

Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has opened his campaign to grab a slice of the spotlight for the State during Bio2003 by announcing the first investment by Australia’s largest biotechnology fund, the $100 million Queensland BioCapital Fund. [ + ]

The NSW government has taken the first step towards fulfilling its election pledge, with $205million on the table over the next four years as funding for the new peak cancer research organsation. [ + ]

Victorian company AGT Biosciences (formerly Autogen) has opened its AGT Biosciences Center for Human Statistical Genomics at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio, Texas. [ + ]

Norwood Abbey is in the midst of planning an international clinical trial examining the use of its Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone (GnRH) analogue drugs to revive the immune system in patients with HIV/AIDS. [ + ]

A renowned German technology marketing and commercialisation expert will be the coordinator and keynote speaker of a University of Adelaide technology course beginning later this month.