Norwood Abbey has spun out its immunology project into a separate company, which will be listed in Europe or the USA within the next 12 months. [ + ]

The three-dimensional structure of the anti-apoptosis protein Bcl-w has unexpectedly revealed a protective 'tail' which sits in a groove preventing cell death from being triggered accidentally, explaining why attempts at designing drugs capable of specifically triggering cell death may be more challenging than first appreciated. [ + ]

One of the fathers of Queensland's biotech industry, Prof Peter Andrews, has been hired by New Zealand to pinpoint promising opportunities for colloboration between the two regions. [ + ]

The amount of computing power available to Australian bioinformatics researchers continues to climb, with the Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing (VPAC) this week switching on a massive $1 million clustered server from IBM that will more than double the organisation's computing power. [ + ]

Australia has taken the penultimate step towards growing its second transgenic crop -- the oilseed canola with yesterday's decision by the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator to release a risk-assessment and risk-management plan for Bayer CropScience's InVigor varieties, which contain three genes, two for hybrid vigour system, one for glufosinate resistance. [ + ]

Melbourne company Genetic Technologies has filed lawsuits against three major US companies for infringement of the company's non-coding DNA patents. [ + ]

Start-ups are hard work and technology-based start-ups even harder, the CEO of one of Australia's best-known such ventures told last week's KCA commercialisation conference. [ + ]

Virax Holdings has entered into a supply agreement with US biotechnology company MedImmune. [ + ]

The world's first fossil protein sequence has been carried out, making this a major scientific breakthrough, which has the potential to bring about changes in evolutionary theory.

Ron Grey's company GBC Scientific Instruments makes one of the fastest and most sensitive mass spectrometers available. But the Victorian company has run into a big problem -- laws in Australia put into place to counter the development of weapons of mass destruction by other countries are making it almost impossible for the company to export its instruments. [ + ]

Technology transfer, rather than spin-offs or other options, is the key to effective commercialisation at CSIRO, according to the organisation's recently appointed executive director of business development. [ + ]

Eminent scientists should remain in the lab producing research results, rather than join a start-up company based on their work, according to the head of one of the most successful technology transfer offices in the US. [ + ]

As the Antarctic sun sets for winter, the world's first automated observatory will continue beaming data from the Antarctic plateau back to UNSW.

A paper published in prestigious journal Neuron has heralded Prana Biotechnology's technology as a potential therapeutic for Parkinson's disease and revealed the company's strategy to develop its MPAC (metal protein attenuating protein) class of compounds as a platform technology for a variety of diseases. [ + ]

The ongoing search for gravitational waves has won the 2003 Clunies Ross National Science and Technology Award for Professor David Blair of The University of Western Australia's School of Physics.