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Molecular Biology
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Molecular biology is a branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular structures and chemical processes underlying biological activity within and between cells, centered largely on the study of nucleic acids and proteins. The term was first used in 1945 by the English physicist William Astbury to describe this approach to biological questions.
Facts
Founded YearSourced to the subject's own accountYear the term molecular biology was first used, by William Astbury. Central QuestionSourced to the subject's own accountHow is genetic information encoded in DNA transferred into functioning proteins, and how is that flow of information regulated so that different cells in the same organism, sharing identical DNA, take on entirely different forms and roles? 1 ScopeSourced to the subject's own accountMolecular biology studies the biological processes of living organisms in terms of the molecules, chiefly DNA, RNA and proteins, that carry them out, and the way those molecules interact and regulate one another. 1 SignificanceSourced to the subject's own accountJames Watson and Francis Crick's 1953 determination of the double helical structure of DNA, built on X-ray diffraction data, immediately suggested how genetic information could be copied and passed on, giving molecular biology its central organizing structure and launching decades of work on gene expression. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
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With James Watson, also live on this atlas; the two shared credit, along with Maurice Wilkins, for the 1962 Nobel Prize following the 1953 discovery.
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