Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDIs) have emerged as oncology’s Great Hope – rarely has a new class of drugs showed promise against such a broad range of cancers, including leukaemias, lymphomas and solid tumours.

The Australian Health & Medical Research Congress started today in Brisbane. We kick off proceedings by profiling renowned adult stem cell researcher, Elaine Fuchs.

Toby Sargeant has used new statistical techniques to trace the evolutionary development of the Plasmodium species of parasites and the relationship between different clades.

Alan Cowman’s group from WEHI may have found a weakness in the armour of the malaria parasite – by harnessing P. falciparum’s key defence strategy, they plan to turn it against itself.

Dean DellaPenna says we are in the midst of a golden period for research into plant metabolism.

ComBio begins in Canberra next week and as part of our preview we talk to plenary speaker Rob Last about the tomato trichome project.

Beetles and crickets offer the perfect model for studying sexual selection and the primacy of female choice.

While Friedreich’s ataxia is a rare disorder, tracking down the role of the protein implicated in the disease has opened up new therapeutic potentials.

Epigenetics is moving from the laboratory to the clinic and the pharmacy, with several histone deacetylase inhibitors on the market and epigenetic screening likely to become as widespread as genetic screening.

Dee Carter and her group have revitalised taxonomy in Australia as well as our understanding of the evolution of the Plasmodium species with the discovery of a long-lost cousin. And they came across it at the bottom of Sydney Harbour.

Australian and New Zealand researchers are part of an international project of mutual interest (and age-old bad jokes) - the sequencing of the sheep genome. The difference for the International Sheep Genomics Consortium is the availability of short-read sequencing technology.