Replikun and UQ agreement to develop vaccine for West Nile virus.

Strange little microbes living in extreme conditions will soon be put under the microscope by Australian TAFE students in a novel partnership that aims to apply biotechnology to the real world.

Immune therapy developer and Norwood Abbey (ASX:NAL) subsidiary Norwood Immunology (AIM:NIM) has entered into an option to acquire all the share capital of Netherlands-based Bestewil Holding, the 100 per cent owner of Virosome Biologicals Group, for up to 25 million euros (AUD$40.5 million).

Spinifex Pharmaceuticals, a drug development company spun out of the University of Queensland, has received a AUD$3.25 million investment commitment to develop therapeutics for the treatment of neuropathic pain.

Australia and New Zealand research and funding agencies are joining hands across the Tasman for a major genomics project on the animal on which both nations' economies were founded -- the sheep.

Melbourne drug discovery biotech Cryptome Pharmaceuticals (ASX:CRP) has turned on its income tap after signing a collaboration agreement with Germany's Xantos Biomedicine to validate Xantos' lead anti-cancer molecule.

Recombinant Capital's Mark Edwards has some unfashionable advice for Australian life science companies: don't hold out for a late-stage partnership with a pharmaceutical company at the expense of shoring up the company's future with early stage deals.

You've run your experiments, got your results, and you've been mentally spending -- or at least licensing -- the proceeds of your bulging IP portfolio. But that may have been the easy part, writes Renate Krelle. Before you go any further, here's a checklist of some of the most common patenting pitfalls.

Apple Computer has outlined its strategy to win the hearts and minds of scientists, during a presentation to select attendees at the BioIT World Conference and Expo in Boston.

Sun Microsystems has abruptly withdrawn from the Interoperable Informatics Infrastructure Consortium (I3C) that it helped to found in 2001.