Agriculture

The federal government has announced new funding of $440,000 to support 69 research collaborations between Australian and overseas groups, as part of the International Science Linkages – Science Academies Program.

Soybean is a remarkable plant, not only a protein rich food crop, but also usable in manifold industrial applications, such as the production of biofuel, emulsifiers, paints and even lipstick.

Solagran and BioProspect to develop commercialisation plan for animal health and nutrition products.

APVMA registers Erimophilone Oil as an active ingredient, end-user product could be available within two years.

Licensing deal for natural insecticide, Qcide, assigned to Bio-Gene Technology.

How do plants ‘know’ when to begin flowering in spring? Dr Jean Finnegan of the CSIRO explores the epigenetic mechanisms that help flowering plants weather the winter.

Complete genome expected to lead to improved strains of this vital economic crop.

With the world’s phosphate reserves rapidly running out, Professor Hans Lambers suggests crop breeders and agronomists take a close look at nature’s solutions to the problem.

Early-stage biotechnology companies were hardest hit by the GFC, but NemGenix has made it through by embracing every form of funding available.

NSW scientists are researching how to develop a freeze-dried form of the rabbit Calicivirus to improve its effectiveness.

The Agricultural Biotechnology International Conference (ABIC) is being held in Melbourne this year, bringing with it such names as Alan Colman, Jennifer Thomson and Robert Wall. With Australia's economy still so reliant on the land, Graeme O'Neill takes a look at what our neighbours across the pond can teach us about harnessing the power of biotechnology in agriculture.

The big names in the world of rice genomics will gather in Adelaide this August for the International Society of Plant Molecular Biology (ISPMB) congress. Kate McDonald spoke to CSIRO Plant Industry's Dr Narayana Upadhyaya about progress in his field, rice functional genomics.

Sequencing of the cattle genome is nearly complete and will herald a revolution in breed improvement.

The research community is becoming more sophisticated in the way they approach intellectual property and industry partnerships. Ruth Beran looks at how technology transfer has changed, where it is going and the challenges it faces.

Biotechnology has provided a solution to the problem of how to get science to the market without compromising research, writes editor-in-chief Iain Scott.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw told AusBiotech 2005 about opportunities for Australian biotech to work with India.

US venture capitalist Osagie Imasogie told AusBiotech 2005 that biotech companies need to get aggressive when it comes to finding opportunities.

In many places in the world, 'biotechnology' only means agricultural biotech. The same can't be said in Australia, where GM technology is a dirty word. But could economics and technology force Australia to change its views on biotech crops to keep up with the rest of the world?

The cotton bollworm, the world's most economically destructive insect pest, is having its genome sequenced.

Malcolm Walter has moved his collection of rocks from Macquarie University to the University of NSW, where he has joined Brett Neilan and his colleagues in an expanded multidisciplinary team as part of the new Australian Centre for Astrobiology (ACA).

Cochlear boss Chris Roberts has spent 30 years at Australia's leading device companies -- but that doesn't mean he has stopped learning, as Helen Schuller discovers.

Australian Biotechnology News editor-in-chief Iain Scott spoke with renowned industry analyst Cynthia Robbins-Roth about what it will take to keep biotech alive.

Dr John Raff tells Graeme O'Neill why Australia's agbiotech industry is struggling.

On a wall at CSIRO Plant Industry's Merbein laboratories, is an old photo-micrograph of a grapevine floral bud. Dr Nigel Steele Scott, head of Plant Industry's horticultural research laboratories in Glen Osmond, South Australia, says it's his favourite image -- a portent of a revolution in viticulture that is still having an enormous impact on the Australian wine industry today.

History students and trivia buffs in the distant future time will be grateful for one of history's little coincidences -- the Human Genome Project will be completed this year, 2003, a neat half-century after the elucidation of the structure of DNA.

Nobel Laureate Prof Peter Doherty is lending his name to a new prize to be awarded at Australia's first Commercialisation Forum and Fair of Ideas, which started in Sydney today and runs to March 28.

Phil Batterham is a skilled and meticulous organiser, with an understanding of the value of theatre. When the University of Melbourne geneticist flew to Beijing in 1998 for the 18th International Congress of Genetics, he had already spent two years organising Australia's bid to bring the world's biggest genetics festival to Melbourne in 2003.

When you think of the Human Genome Project, images of banks of sequencing machines pumping out millions of base pairs of information comes to mind. According to Dr John Barlow, Melbourne divisional manager of the Australian Genome Research Facility, state-of-the-art sequencing is still largely electrophoresis-based. However, sequencers have come a long way since the days of pouring your own sequencing gel and using radioactive dideoxynucleotides.