Perth-based biotech Chemeq has expanded its pipeline with the development of a sunscreen and an after-sun emollient based on its proprietary polymer chemistry platform. [ + ]

Heart failure patients at the Ohio State University Heart Center in the US may be seeing less of their doctors. And the doctors couldn't be happier.

Mount Stromlo was, is and will continue to be an icon of scientific research and education, ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Chubb has said in the wake of the recent Canberra bushfires, which destroyed the historic observatory.

New Zealand geneticists have laid the foundation for a revolution in dairying by developing transgenic dairy cows that yield high-protein milk. [ + ]

Like a well-trained soldier with honed survival skills, the common bacterium, Group A Streptococcus (GAS), sometimes can endure battle with our inborn (innate) immune system and cause widespread disease. By investigating the ability of combat-ready white blood cells (WBCs) to ingest and kill GAS, researchers have discovered new insights into how this disease-causing bacteria can evade destruction by the immune system.

Forget the record $AUD478 million that the Federal Government has just pledged to pump into the Cooperative Research Centre program over the next seven years. The real story is all about who is getting the new funds and what is happening to the senior citizens in the CRC scheme. [ + ]

Former telecommunications company Select-Tel is the latest to venture into biotech, signing a memorandum of understanding with Melbourne's MacFarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health to commercialise several projects from the Institute. [ + ]

A proposal by Queensland Premier Peter Beattie to join biotechnology forces with Victoria and NSW is receiving a positive response from NSW Premier Bob Carr. [ + ]

Some individuals born into families with a history of epilepsy may be doubly, even triply cursed, according a new theoretical model of the world's most common inherited brain disorder. [ + ]

Queensland-based BioProspect has formed a collaboration with US company Apath to screen BioProspect's natural plant extract library for potential antiviral therapeutics for hepatitis C virus (HCV) and other pathogenic viruses. [ + ]

The prospect of treating obese humans with leptin, a natural appetite suppressant secreted by fat cells, is looking increasingly slim after a new study by a Melbourne researcher. [ + ]

The Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) has announced Associate Professor Roy Tasker from the University of Western Sydney as the new recipient of the Chemical Education Division Medal, the highest award in Australia for chemical education.

Shares in drug discovery company Autogen rose more than 15 per cent today after the company announced that nine new genes involved in diabetes and obesity were affected by exercise. [ + ]

A 15 per cent staff cut at Sydney-based listed biotech Gradipore has been given an enthusiastic tick of approval by investors. [ + ]

Scientists at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney have succeeded in creating new brain cells in mice, using adult stem cells, in a move which has the potential to eliminate some effects of multiple sclerosis (MS) and related illnesses.