The Lazarus-like revival of diagnostics company Analytica offers a ray of hope for young Australian biotechs caught in the current funding drought. [ + ]

Norwood Abbey has raised $4.13 million in a placement to institutional and professional investors. [ + ]

Western Australian horticulture company Bioscience has been commissioned by Solbec Pharmaceuticals to set up and run Solbec's horticultural production facility, used to produce its lead anti-cancer compound from Solanum linnaeanum, or devil's apple. [ + ]

Bioglobal has signed an exclusive three-year agreement to market and distribute its LuciLure blowfly trap for sheep protection and landfill markets in Australia and New Zealand. [ + ]

Sydney pharmaceutical company Novogen says the first human clinical trial of its candidate heart-disease therapeutic NV-04 has confirmed the "outstanding potency" it showed in initial trials in laboratory animals. [ + ]

Meditech Research and SkyePharma have completed a commercial pas-de-deux that sees them divide up the Pacific Rim markets for the Solarase, a topical treatment for the pre-cancerous skin condition, actinic or solar keratosis. [ + ]

The UK's Agriculture and Environment Biotechnology Commission has called for a new advisory body and development of a strategy to deal with issues relating to genetically modified and cloned animals. [ + ]

A mouse model for inherited epilepsy has been created by Adelaide company Bionomics by 'knocking-in' the human mutation. The model exhibits seizures similar to human epileptic seizures. [ + ]

Melbourne biotech Autogen has been granted a US patent for its Beacon gene, and its use as a therapeutic or diagnostic in conditions like obesity, diabetes and energy imbalance. [ + ]

Melbourne-based Genetic Technologies has licensed its non-coding DNA patents to a third US genomics company, Perlegen Sciences, for about $1.6 million in cash and securities. [ + ]

Scientists at the ANU have developed a technology that may be used to study the universe's most violent events - the Big Bang and exploding stars. Their research shows that 'squeezed' light could be used to improve the performance of gravitational wave detectors.

The Australian Synchrotron Project has progressed to the stage where it requires a commercial director to develop commercial and policy frameworks. [ + ]

Researchers at Stanford University Medical Center in the US have reported that they failed in attempts to coax adult blood-forming stem cells in mice into forming tissues other than blood and immune cells. [ + ]

Up to 20 AusBiotech members are being offered the chance to take part in a medical devices and diagnostics mission in France this November 4-8, under the auspices of the French-Australian Industrial Research (FAIR) program. [ + ]

Perth-based company Chemeq has started its push to introduce its polymeric antimicrobial drug for prevention of colibacillosis in pigs into South Africa, the first country to approve the veterinary product. [ + ]