Molecular biology

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Molecular biology is the study of biology at a molecular level. The field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry. Molecular biology chiefly concerns itself with understanding the interactions between the various systems of a cell, including the interactions between DNA, RNA and protein biosynthesis as well as learning how these interactions are regulated.

Writing in Nature, William Astbury described molecular biology as:

"[...]not so much a technique as an approach, an approach from the viewpoint of the so-called basic sciences with the leading idea of searching below the large-scale manifestations of classical biology for the corresponding molecular plan. It is concerned particularly with the forms of biological molecules and[...]is predominantly three-dimensional and structural—which does not mean, however, that it is merely a refinement of morphology. It must at the same time inquire into genesis and function."

For more information about Molecular biology, read the full article at Wikipedia.
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News tagged with molecular biology

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Beyond genomics, biologists and engineers decode the next frontier

Beyond genomics, biologists and engineers decode the next frontier

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Nov 18, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of Princeton biologists and engineers has dramatically improved the speed and accuracy of measuring an enigmatic set of proteins that influences almost every aspect of how cells and ...


One word: bioplastics

One word: bioplastics

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Nov 17, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (14) | comments 4

(PhysOrg.com) -- Every year, more than 250 billion pounds of plastic are produced worldwide. Much of it ends up in the world's oceans, a fact that troubles MIT biology professor Anthony Sinskey.


New discoveries in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Nov 04, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Researchers at UAB in collaboration with the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, have discovered the structure of the PPC descarboxilase (PPCDC) enzyme present in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a very important ...


Sight gone, but not necessarily lost? Researchers find life in blood-starved retinas

Medicine & Health / Genetics

created Oct 30, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Like all tissues in the body, the eye needs a healthy blood supply to function properly. Poorly developed blood vessels can lead to visual impairment or even blindness. While many of the molecules involved in guiding the ...


Trigger of deadly food toxin discovered

Trigger of deadly food toxin discovered

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Oct 21, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A toxin produced by mold on nuts and grains can cause liver cancer if consumed in large quantities. UC Irvine researchers for the first time have discovered what triggers the toxin to form, ...


E. coli

Genomes of Two Popular Research Strains of E. coli Sequenced

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Oct 20, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- An international team of researchers from the United States, Korea, and France has sequenced and analyzed the genomes of two important laboratory strains of E. coli bacteria, one used to study ...


Scientists visualize assembly line gears in ribosomes, cell's protein factory

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Oct 15, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Even as research on the ribosome, one of the cell's most basic machines, is recognized with a Nobel Prize, scientists continue to achieve new insights on the way ribosomes work.


Why do human populations differ? Fruit fly study aims to provide genetic answers

Biology / Other

created Oct 13, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Charles Aquadro, professor of molecular biology and genetics, researches how fruit flies provide clues to humans' own genetic footprints of adaptation.


Genome-wide study of autism published in Nature

Genome-wide study of autism published in Nature

Medicine & Health / Genetics

created Oct 07, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- In one of the first studies of its kind, an international team of researchers has uncovered a single-letter change in the genetic code that is associated with autism. The finding, published ...


Iowa State researchers looking for catalyst that allows plants to produce hydrocarbons

Iowa State researchers looking for catalyst that allows plants to produce hydrocarbons

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Oct 01, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Plants and algae may be a source of green, renewable hydrocarbons that could replace the ancient, finite hydrocarbons in fossil fuels, according to a team of researchers led by Iowa State University's Jackie ...


Iowa State University researcher uncovers potential key to curing tuberculosis

Iowa State University researcher uncovers potential key to curing tuberculosis

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Oct 01, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Researchers at Iowa State University have identified an enzyme that helps make tuberculosis resistant to a human's natural defense system. Researchers have also found a method to possibly neutralize that enzyme, ...


How the 100th protein structure solved at Diamond impacts our understanding of how insects smell

How the 100th protein structure solved at Diamond impacts our understanding of how insects smell

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Sep 29, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

New research announced today, Wednesday 30th September, by a team of leading scientists working with the UK's national Synchrotron, Diamond Light Source, could have a significant impact on the development ...


Guide on lung cancer in 'never-smokers': A different disease and different treatments

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Sep 16, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 1

A committee of scientists led by Johns Hopkins investigators has published a new guide to the biology, diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer in never-smokers, fortifying measures for what physicians have long known is a ...


dog

Cradle and birthday of dog identified

Biology / Evolution

created Sep 01, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Previous studies in the field have indicated that East Asia is where the wolf was tamed and became the dog. It was not possible to be more precise than that. But now researchers at the Royal Institute of Technology ...


New images capture cell's ribosomes at work

New images capture cell's ribosomes at work, could aid in molecular war against disease

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Aug 20, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have for the first time captured elusive nanoscale movements of ribosomes at work, shedding light on how these cellular factories take ...