Australian stem-cell researchers are elated at yesterday's decisive Senate vote in favour of a Bill to permit research on stem cells from surplus IVF embryos. [ + ]

Australian companies should start talking to the US Food and Drug Administration as early as possible, according to Kendle International's VP of regulatory affairs, Dr Richard Schwen. [ + ]

The Australian Academy of Science has welcomed the Federal Government's announcement of the national research priorities. The priorities are exciting, comprehensive and will capture the imagination and support of the Australian community, it claims.

Whether it was your destiny to be tall or short, blonde or redheaded, fair or olive-skinned, it's no secret that your genes made you that way. But exactly what parts of DNA determine people's physical characteristics is still a mystery to scientists, and one that researchers based at The Queensland University of Technology are trying to solve.

Natural products provide a validated basis for protein-drug interactions that should be exploited as a tool for rational drug design, Griffith University's Prof Ron Quinn told delegates at the Australian Health and Medical Research Congress last week. [ + ]

A group of Australian researchers are pursuing ground-breaking work on receptors in muscle tissue which play an unexpectedly important part in regulating cholesterol levels. [ + ]

Australian researchers have the opportunity to participate in the Sixth Framework Program for European Research and Technological Development (FP6), but they should think hard about the value they can bring to collaborative projects and be prepared to come with their own funding, according to presenters at a special symposium held by the Australasian Research Management Society at the Australian Health and Medical Research Congress (AHMRC) last week. [ + ]

An Australian research study published this week in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science explains why current drugs don't work on a common, inherited form of epilepsy -- and points the way to a new class of epilepsy therapeutics. [ + ]

Australian Biotechnology News and Factiva, a Dow Jones and Reuters Company, concluded an agreement this week that will see ABN's content distributed globally to over 1.5 million desktops. [ + ]

An innovative approach in reaching out to shareholders has raised $AU3 million for Melbourne-based biotech company Meditech Research. [ + ]

A public consortium of researchers is hoping to get permission to start a Phase I clinical trial of a new HIV vaccine early in the new year. [ + ]

Peptech managing director Stephen Kwik is accentuating the positives after Peptech reported an after-tax loss of $AU8.9 million loss in the 12 months to September, after a $AU32.7 million net profit in the previous year. [ + ]

Genetic Technologies' executive chairman Dr Mervyn Jacobson is surprised and disappointed by recent criticism of the deal he brokered with US genetic testing giant Myriad Genetics. [ + ]

Researchers from Monash University and the University of Sydney have designed a material containing holes one millionth of a millimetre wide that could provide a new mechanism for sensing molecules.

Prima BioMed subsidiary PanVax has entered into a research collaboration with the Institute Pasteur in France. [ + ]