The international Human Variome Project is up and running following a highly successful first meeting in Melbourne in June.

Chris Weaver has resigned as Medical Developments Internationa (ASX:MVP) managing director and CEO to take up an executive management position with a bank. Current CFO Jeremy Payling will act as interim CEO while the company searches for a new CEO.

EU environment ministers dealt a blow to efforts to get more GMO crops grown in Europe as they agreed to uphold eight national bans on genetically modified maize and rapeseed types.

The withdrawal of Tysabri in mid-Feburary not only "gutted" both Elan and Biogen Idec, but also hit the share prices of other publicly traded biopharmaceutical firms, sending the Burrill Biotech Select Index tumbling to end February down 2 per cent.

Following a call by the European Commission for increased technology research, Microsoft has launched an initiative to invest in scientific research centres in Europe.

Peptech (ASX:PTD) has declared a fully-franked dividend of AUD$0.08 per share, and announced that its UK-investee Domantis is to join a European Commission cardiovascular research project which will receive Euro 9 million (AUD$15.2 million) in funding over four years.

New Zealand biotech Neuren today lodged the prospectus for its mid-January IPO with ASIC, announcing that it will aim to raise AUD$15 million, giving it an indicative market capitalisation of AUD$40 million.

The European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) has launched Genome Reviews 1.0, a standardised resource for completely sequenced genomes, consisting of 256 chromosomes and plasmids, representing the complete genomes of 153 prokaryotic organisms.

The European Commission has awarded £12 million (AUD$28.5 million) to establish a pan-European BioSapiens Network of Excellence in Bioinformatics, comprising 24 bioinformatics groups in 14 countries.

The Australian Capital Territory, home to CSIRO's Plant Industry division, looks set to join the southern mainland states and Tasmania in imposing a moratorium on the environmental release of genetically modified crops.

Agilent Technologies claims to have found a new way to detect genetically modified (GM) content in food products that allows rapid screening using the company's 2100 bioanalyser with its DNA 500 LabChip.