Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca plans to augment the Queensland-based natural product research centre in which it has invested $55 million since 1993. [ + ]

Ellex Medical Lasers has boosted its scientific advisory board with the appointment Prof John Marshall, an international expert in ophthalmologic lasers, and Peter Falzon, the former director of business development at US-based laser device company Lumanis. [ + ]

Australian researchers have unravelled part of the process controlling the production of new neurones from stem cells in the brain. [ + ]

Australian sleep apnoea devices company ResMed has filed a lawsuit against US-based Respironics, claiming that several Respironics products infringe on ResMed patents. [ + ]

The scene has been set for a possible showdown next month between the board of drug discovery company Biota Holdings and Perth businessman Farooq Khan. [ + ]

A potentially lucrative bid to provide the drug industry with improved testing capabilities on animal models has been launched by two Australian biotechs. [ + ]

Melbourne-based company Cardia Technologies has wrapped its medical biotech projects into a new wholly-owned subsidiary company, Big Pharma Ltd. [ + ]

Melbourne pharmaceutical company Acrux has done an IP swap with Soltec Research that will allow both companies to further their development of transdermal and topical therapeutics. [ + ]

The University of NSW is holding a workshop on stem cells on November 19th for all NSW researchers working with or interested in working with stem cells. [ + ]

Scientists at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) in the US and collaborators elsewhere have deciphered the genome of a metal ion-reducing bacterium, Shewanella oneidensis, that has great potential as a bioremediation agent to remove toxic metals from the environment.

The announcement that pSivida's porous silicon technology, BioSilicon, has shown it can perform diagnostic tests when applied as a skin patch opens up new revenue horizons for the Perth biotech. [ + ]

The co-director of Queensland's Institute for Molecular Bioscience>, Prof John Mattick, has resigned from his position on Benitec's board of directors while he is in Germany on a sabbatical. [ + ]

Sydney-based company Sirtex Medical has been awarded the Humanitarian Benefit Device of the Year 2002 for its SIR-Spheres liver cancer treatment by Frost and Sullivan, a US-based market consulting and analyst group. [ + ]

Acting chairman Brett Heading introduced a "new" Autogen to friends and supporters of the company today at the launch of its new high-throughput genotyping facility at the Toorak campus of Deakin University in Melbourne. [ + ]

The BioMelbourne Network has received a boost from the Victorian government in the form of $750,000 funding over the next three years to launch the organisation as an independent state-based biotechnology agency. [ + ]