Australian biomedical research developer Circadian Technologies has appointed an accountant with a diverse business background to its board. [ + ]

Sydney company Peptech is hinging its hopes for a positive second half result on the issuing of US patents for its anti tumour nectrotising factor. [ + ]

A board reshuffle aimed at sharpening the focus of Adelaide biotherapy company BresaGen is underway. The company has announced the resignations of three board members and the appointment of an existing director to the chairman's position. [ + ]

Polls claiming to illustrate community views on genetic modification should be interpreted with caution because they did not always take into account a person's knowledge of the topic, a New Zealand academic has warned. [ + ]

New Zealand based Genesis Research and Development Corporation will get $NZ6 million from the Foundation for Research Science and Technology to discover and investigate new plant hormones and signalling processes. [ + ]

Collaborative agreements between researchers at the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and three major US universities - Texas A&M University, Texas Tech and the University of Missouri - could lead to development of drought resistant crops. [ + ]

Potential users of Australia's national synchrotron need to start planning now, according to Sir Peter Williams, president of the UK Institute of Physics and proponent of the synchrotron project. [ + ]

Despite being regarded as one of Australia's top three listed biotech stocks, sleep disorder specialist ResMed would probably rather forget 2002. [ + ]

Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers pursuing the cause of leptin's ability to boost metabolism and shed fat have identified a metabolic switch that appears to tell the body to store or burn fat.

The world's first clinical trial into repairing damaged spinal cords using transplanted nasal nerve cells now underway in Queensland could have global significance. [ + ]

VosTech, a technology investment company based in Perth, is planning to enter the biotechnology market by acquiring animal biotechnology company Brightsun and its associated equity interests in CSIRO spin-off Vectogen and Murdoch University start-up Paragen. [ + ]

Top-ranked computational biologists in Australia and the US are looking at joining forces to produce better software for bioscience researchers. [ + ]

The latest computer to come out of the University of Southern California isn't newsworthy for its small size or computational power. It's notable because it is made from DNA, the microscopic acids that reside in every cell and are responsible for all life. [ + ]

As part of a clinical trial into spinal cord regeneration surgery in paraplegics, cells, harvested from the nose of a volunteer patient with paraplegia, have been culture in a laboratory and transplanted in the patient's spinal cord. The use of the patient's own cells eliminates the risk of cell rejection and the need for anti-rejection medication.

Amrad Corporation's horror year plumbed new depths today when the company revealed poor results had led it to abandon its chronic hepatitis B compound. [ + ]