The latest medical technology is all very well - if you can afford it. Susan Williamson looks at how one Australian group is coming up with practical healthcare solutions for the developing world.

Three Victorian institutes, the MacFarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health, the University of Melbourne and the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, have applied to host the WHO Collaborative Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza, which is currently based at the CSL site in Parkville, Melbourne.

Select Vaccines reports promising results for hep C

The latest commonwealth government funding announcement for health and medical research will see AUD$292 million allocated to more than 600 projects across 52 Australian universities, hospitals and medical research institutes.

The annual Prime Minister's prizes for science and science teaching were awarded last night at Parliament House in Canberra.

An 'action agenda' for the Australian science industry -- encompassing 47,000 manufacturers, distributors, laboratory services providers and researchers -- was launched in Sydney yesterday by the minister for industry, tourism and resources, Ian Macfarlane.

The federal government endorsed the recommendations of the Science Industry Action Agenda Measure by Measure report on July 12, giving the go ahead for the eight recommendations made in the report to be implemented.

The main message to come out of a survey of Australian genomics and proteomics companies, conducted by health care analysts Frost and Sullivan, was that the industry needs more collaboration between academia, companies and those providing funding to engender investor confidence.

Perth-based biomedical devices developer, Visiomed Group (ASX:VSG) and ophthalmic surgical laser group, CustomVis (AIM:CUS), also based in Perth, have begun a clinical evaluation trial on their ophthalmic imaging system, microEYE.

Research in to the genetic causes of melanoma will be the focus of the new Scott Kirkbride Melanoma Research Centre, recently established at the University of Western Australia's Centre for Medical Research in Perth.