Scope of molecular biology

1. SCOPE OF MODERN BIOLOGY
Dr Nagabhushan CM

2. • Today, molecular cell biology is a blend
of advanced cytology, molecular nature,
genetics, biochemistry, computation, and
engineering.
• How we do cell biology, what topics we
investigate, what methods we use and
even how we communicate our findings,
how we make up our career, how we
contribute to the environment is
changing at a rapid pace
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3. • The accelerating rate of technological
advance is revolutionising molecular
cell biology. Hardware advances in
automation, DNA sequencing, mass
spectroscopy and various forms of
microarray analysis allow large-scale
genomic and proteomic analyses.
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4. fluorescence resonance
energy transfer
• Techniques such as PCR, FRET and RNAi have
led to quantum leaps in experimental
sophistication.
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RNAi
PCR

5. • Biochemistry, sometimes
called biological chemistry, is the
study of chemical processes within
and relating to living organisms.
• Biochemical processes give rise to the
complexity of life.
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6. • Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field
that develops methods and software tools
for understanding biological data. As an
interdisciplinary field of science,
bioinformatics combines biology, computer
science, information engineering,
mathematics and statistics to analyze and
interpret biological data.
• Bioinformatics has been used for in
silico analyses of biological queries using
mathematical and statistical techniques.
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Dr. Nagabhushan CM

7. • Enzymes are macromolecular biological catalysts that
accelerate chemical reactions.
• The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called
substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into
different molecules known as products.
• Almost all metabolic processes in the cell need enzyme
catalysis in order to occur at rates fast enough to
sustain life.
• Metabolic pathways depend upon enzymes to catalyze
individual steps.
• The study of enzymes is called enzymology and a new
field of pseudoenzyme analysis has recently grown up,
recognising that during evolution, some enzymes have
lost the ability to carry out biological catalysis, which is
often reflected in their amino acid sequences and
unusual 'pseudocatalytic' properties.
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8. • Genetics is a branch of biology
concerned with the study of genes,
genetic variation, and heredity in
organisms.
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9. • Phytochemistry is the study of phytochemicals,
which are chemicals derived from plants.
• Those studying phytochemistry strive to
describe the structures of the large number of
secondary metabolic compounds found in
plants, the functions of these compounds in
human and plant biology, and the biosynthesis
of these compounds.
• Plants synthesize phytochemicals for many
reasons,
– including to protect themselves against insect
attacks and plant diseases.
– Phytochemicals in food plants are often active in
human biology, and in many cases have health
benefits.
– The compounds found in plants are of many kinds,
but most are in four major biochemical classes, the
alkaloids, glycosides, polyphenols, and terpenes.
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10. • Structural biology is a branch of molecular
biology, biochemistry, and biophysics
concerned with the molecular structure of
biological macromolecules how they acquire
the structures they have, and how alterations
in their structures affect their function.
• This subject is of great interest to biologists
because macromolecules carry out most of
the functions of cells, and it is only by coiling
into specific three-dimensional shapes that
they are able to perform these functions. This
architecture, the "tertiary structure" of
molecules, depends in a complicated way on
each molecule's basic composition, or
"primary structure."
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Dr. Nagabhushan CM

11. SYNTHETIC
BIOLOGY
v/s
EVOLUTION ?
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12. • Synthetic biology is an
interdisciplinary branch of
biology and engineering.
Decreasing costs of DNA
synthesis and recent
advances in technology have
fuelled the success of
synthetic biology companies
in recent years, and now
comprises one of the fastest
growing and most funded
areas of commercial
biotechnology.
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13. • Synthetic biology is a field of
science that involves
redesigning organisms for
useful purposes by engineering
them to have new abilities.
• Synthetic biology researchers
and companies around the
world are harnessing the
power of nature to solve
problems in medicine,
manufacturing and agriculture
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15. objective
• the main objective is to
create fully operational
biological systems from the
smallest constituent parts
possible,
including DNA, proteins,
and other organic
molecules.
• Ex:Ethanol, drugs,
complete synthetic
organisms.
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16. history
• Friedrich Wöhler, a German chemist who in
1828 applied ammonium chloride to silver
isocyanate to produce urea, the
main nitrogen-carrying compound found in
the urine of mammals.
• ORGANIC COMPOUND
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17. • In 1970s scientists began to conduct experiments
with genetic engineering and recombinant DNA
technology, in which they modified the genetic
code of wild-type (naturally occurring) bacteria
by inserting single wild-type genes that could
alter bacterial function.
• This technology led to the production
of biologic drugs, agents made from proteins and
other organic compounds produced by bacteria
with recombinant DNA; one such compound is
synthetic insulin.
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18. ADVANCES: genome transplant
• In 2007, scientists at the J. Craig Venter Research
Institute (JCVI) in the United States took synthetic
biology to a new level when they successfully
transplanted the entire genome of one species
of bacterium (Mycoplasma mycoides)
into the cytoplasm of
another (Mycoplasma capricolum),
accomplishing the first full genome transplant. The
new bacteria were completely devoid of their
native genes and, after cell division, became
phenotypically equivalent .,
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19. • In 2010, JCVI researchers announced –
• created a 1.08-million-base-pair synthetic
genome and inserted it into the cytoplasm of a
bacterium - first functioning life-form with a
synthetic genome.
• The synthetic cell was named M. mycoides JCVI-
syn1.0.
• Its genome was almost identical to the naturally
occurring genome of M. mycoides, except that it
had certain genetic “watermarks” to indicate its
synthetic composition.
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20. BioBricks and xeno-nucleic acids (XNA)
• BioBricks would do
for bioengineering what resistors and
transistors did for electrical engineering.
• the synthesis of nucleic acids that carry the
base pairs of DNA but possess a backbone
made of sugars other than deoxyribose.
• These molecules, known as xeno-nucleic acids
(XNAs), cannot be replicated by the enzyme
DNA polymerase.
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21. applications
1. the work done with recombinant DNA, by
trying to create new forms of bacteria that
can destroy tumours.
2. proteins and gene products from scratch that
will act as targeted vaccines or cures.
3. create microbes that can break dense
feedstocks to produce biofuels (more efficient,
less expensive, and environmentally sustainable
relative to the fossil fuels )
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22. Risk Assessment And Ethical Concerns
• it can be used for good or for ill, and those ills
can be intentional or accidental.
• Both genetically engineered and synthetic
organisms are capable of reproducing,
mutating, evolving, and spreading through
the environment, which makes them riskier
than hazardous chemicals.
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bE cArEfulL
bEfOrE gOiNg aGAinsT tHe
nAtUrE