The Melbourne Newsroom

Mt Buller’s Mountain Pygmy-possums have had some rare good news following the success of an emergency action to save the isolated population from extinction caused by declining genetic diversity.

Scientists have determined the structure of the enzyme endomannosidase, significantly advancing our understanding of how a group of devastating human viruses including HIV and Hepatitis C hijack human enzymes to reproduce and cause disease.

A new type of sugar could help prevent heart disease, according to latest research by Dr Corin Storkey and Professor Carl Schiesser from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Free Radical Chemistry and Biotechnology at The University of Melbourne.

By infecting mosquitoes with bacteria from flies that commonly live in kitchen fruit bowls, researchers have stopped the insects spreading the dengue virus.

A century old mystery has been solved by a new study showing how butterflies mimic the wing patterns of other species to escape being eaten by birds. The study is published today in the international journal Nature.

A new study has revealed in unprecedented detail how parasites use different nutrients needed for growth, providing University of Melbourne researchers with unique drug targets against Leishmania, a tropical parasite that infects 12 million people worldwide and causes 500,000 deaths annually.

Affordable solar energy for Australians is one step closer with $3.5 million in funding from the Victorian and Federal Governments. The grant will allow further development of revolutionary plastic solar cells produced by a team of Victorian researchers.

Australian researchers have invented nanotech solar cells that are thin, flexible and use one hundredth the materials of conventional solar cells.

In a new study revealing key steps for controlling plant growth, researchers have shown how the assembly of components of the plant cell wall regulates growth of root hairs. Root hairs are important structures that allow plants to absorb essential nutrients and water from the soil. The research will assist in contributing to the sustainability of Australia’s plant -based industries such as, agriculture, horticulture and forestry.

Australian researchers have successfully bred two genetically distinct Mountain Pygmy-possums, playing a major role in preventing the endangered population in the Victorian Alpine region from further decline.