MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

Introduction

This guide begins with a foundational introduction to molecular biology. You will learn about the cellular composition of life, how genetic material is encoded in DNA, and how it is transcribed into RNA and translated into proteins—the building blocks of life.

Understanding molecular biology is not only essential for following this guide but also serves to ignite your interest in the life sciences. While it is possible to perform bioinformatics tasks without a deep knowledge of biology, a great bioinformatician or computational biologist benefits immensely from understanding molecular biology. It provides insights into the challenges you are addressing, enables meaningful interpretation of data, and fosters the ability to formulate your own hypotheses. The more you delve into biology, the more engaging and rewarding bioinformatics becomes.

Credits

The main content of this module was written and edited by Aleksey Kurnosov, PhD. Additional material is provided to complement the core content.

Advanced material

This module offers the foundational knowledge necessary to begin exploring bioinformatics. For a deeper understanding of molecular biology, we recommend the book:

Alberts B, Johnson A, Lewis J, Raff M, Roberts K, and Walter P. Molecular Biology of the Cell. 6th Edition. Garland Science, 2014.

To access this book, please contact [e-mail].