Prof Vicki Sara has been appointed as director of the Australian Stem Cell Centre and will replace inaugural chairman Robert Moses when he relinquishes the role he has held for three years at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) on November 22. Sara is the chancellor of the University of Technology, Sydney, a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Science and Engineering and a former head of the Australian Research Council.

After 21 years as Circadian's (ASX:CIR) founding chairman Sir Peter Derham retired at the conclusion of the company's AGM yesterday. Circadian managing director Leon Serry said that Sir Peter was stepping down because he's now 80 years of age.

They were set up to bring key Australian scientists back from overseas. But nearly two thirds of last year's crop of Australian Research Council (ARC) Federation Fellowships was awarded to scientists already living here.

Melbourne and California-based ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals (ASX:CXS) has been awarded two linkage project grants worth AUD$525,000 in cash from the Australian Research Council (ARC) over the next three years.

Federal science minister Dr Brendan Nelson announced today the government will provide AUD$2,972,440 to fund 42 new awards for Australian-based researchers to participate in joint research projects with their overseas peers in 18 different countries, under the Australian Research Council's Linkage International Scheme.

The Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies (FASTS) has criticised a decision by the Minister for Education, Science and Training, Dr Brendan Nelson, to dissolve the board of the Australian Research Council from early next year.

A new, federally-funded Research Network for Parasitology met for the first time in Melbourne last week, bringing together more than 200 researchers in a bid to focus research efforts in the area.

The development of nano-sized microcapsules and bioactive bandages to assist in the delivery of the synthetic growth factor complex, VitroGro, is one of 251 projects to be funded in the latest round of the Australian Research Council's (ARC) Linkage Projects scheme.

Eleven new ARC centres of excellence and 24 federation fellowship receipients will share $162 million in federal government funding.

Chief scientist, Dr Robin Batterham, has accepted a full time position with Rio Tinto and will not seek reappointment as Australia's senior science advisor for a third term.

In 2000, a research team led by University of Queensland molecular geneticist Prof Robert Birch first inserted a gene from the plant-dwelling bacterium Pantoea dispersa into sugarcane cells, aiming to create plants that would synthesise isomaltulose, instead of sucrose.