Australia's latest biotech share offering opens this week when device and diagnostics investment company Premier Bionics launches its IPO. [ + ]

Melbourne's ES Cell International has scored a double coup in the United States with the awarding of a National Institutes of Health infrastructure grant and the signing of a research licensing deal. [ + ]

Developer of sleep disorders devices Compumedics has completed its first acquisition with the $US4 million purchase of Texas-based neurological instruments business Neuroscan. [ + ]

Non-productive research, inflated course offerings, and inefficient bureaucrats in the higher education sector are some of the issues to be addressed in the first of a series of reviews of higher education by the Federal government. [ + ]

The success of a Victorian government gene technology and biotech forum series was under threat because of a dearth of willing expert speakers, according to the Department of Human Services (DHS). [ + ]

US company Confirmant is racing to finish up the first commercial version of its Protein Atlas for June, but life science researchers and industry analysts say a warm reception is far from assured. [ + ]

Peplin Biotech has broadened its research pipeline for anti-cancer drugs that target diseases of the pancreas. [ + ]

A team of Australian and US scientists has announced a world advance in the use of membrane technology to filter and separate various gases and vapours.

A second Australian company has won the right to provide embryonic stem cell lines to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States. [ + ]

Ongoing investigations into the alleged misconduct of a University of New South Wales scientist, Prof Bruce Hall, are to be directed by a selection panel comprised of eminent scientist Sir Gustav Nossal and UNSW chancellor Dr John Yu and vice-chancellor Prof John Niland. [ + ]

Biotechs banking on an AusIndustry Start grant will have to look elsewhere for research cash after the government body revealed it would indefinitely freeze new funding. [ + ]

The Australian Genome Research Facility (AGRF) has played a crucial role in a major international study on the genetic causes of schizophrenia. [ + ]

Australian scientists have discovered a mutation in grapevines equivalent to the dwarfing mutation in cereals discovered in the 1960s that was the basis of the "green revolution", which saw an increase in wheat yields. [ + ]

Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) researchers based at The University of Queensland have led a team to a significant discovery with implications for the treatment of Cystic Fibrosis (CF).

Farmers need to be given freedom to grow their choice of crops - GM, organic or conventional - and this freedom is inhibited by GE-free zones being imposed by certain councils and local governments, according to Avcare. [ + ]