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Introduction to Molecular biology

Molecular biology
- It is the study of the structure function, and makeup of the molecular building blocks of life.
- It focuses on the interactions between the various systems of a cell, including the
interrelationship of DNA, RNA and protein synthesis and how these interactions are regulated.

History of Molecular Biology

- 1930s, Scientists focused on explaining the phenomena of life by studying the macromolecules
that generate life.
- In 1940, George Beadle and Edward Tatum - established the existence of a precise relationship
between genes and proteins
- In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the double helical structure of the DNA
molecule
- Kary Mullis jump-started the field of genetic engineering when he invented the polymerase
chain reaction, an elegantly simple “biological copy machine” that rapidly can produce many
copies of a specific piece of DNA in the lab
- The discovery of the mechanism of heredity has proven to be a major breakthrough in modern
science.
- The techniques of genetic engineering enable molecular biologists to study higher plants and
animals, opening up the possibility of manipulating plant and animal genes to achieve greater
agricultural productivity.
- The development of gene therapy.
- In 1990 with the initiation of the now-completed Human Genome Project (HGP) - to discover
all the estimated 20,000 to 25,000 human genes and make them accessible for further biological
study.
- As part of the HGP, parallel studies were carried out on selected model organisms such as the
bacterium E. coli and the mouse to help develop the technology and interpret human gene
function.

Disciplines related to molecular biology
1.) Genomics
2.) Pharmacogenomics
3.) Proteomics
4.) Molecular genetics
5.) Toxicogenomics
6.) DNA forensics

Genomics: Functional genomics and structural genomics