Chemical biology is a scientific discipline spanning the fields of chemistry and biology that frequently employs compounds produced by synthetic chemistry to study and manipulate biological systems. This article or section includes a list of works cited but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... In chemistry, chemical synthesis is purposeful execution of chemical reactions in order to get a product, or several products. ...

Introduction

Some forms of Chemical Biology attempt to answer biological questions by directly probing living systems at the chemical level. In contrast to research using biochemistry, genetics, or molecular biology, where mutagenesis can provide a new version of the organism or cell of interest, chemical biological studies sometime probe systems in vitro and in vivo with small molecules that have been designed for a specific purpose or identified on the basis of biochemical or cell-based screening. Biochemistry is the study of the chemical processes and transformations in living organisms. ... For a non-technical introduction to the topic, please see Introduction to genetics. ... Molecular biology is the study of biology at a molecular level. ... Site-directed mutagenesis is a molecular biology technique in which a mutation is created at a defined site in a DNA molecule, usually a circular molecule known as a plasmid. ... Wiktionary has a definition of: In vitro In vitro (Latin: within glass) means within a test tube, or, more generally, outside a living organism or cell. ... In vivo (Latin for (with)in the living). ... In science, a molecule is the smallest particle of a pure chemical substance that still retains its chemical composition and properties. ...

Chemical biology is one of many interfacial sciences which are symptiomatic of a general trend in the early 21st century away from older, reductionist fields toward those whose goals are to achieve a description of scientific holism. Reductionism in philosophy describes a number of related, contentious theories that hold, very roughly, that the nature of complex things can always be reduced to (explained by) simpler or more fundamental things. ... Holism (from holos, a Greek word meaning all, entire, total) is the idea that all the properties of a given system (biological, chemical, social, economic, mental, linguistic, etc. ...

Chemical biology has historical and philosophical roots in the interfacial sciences of Medicinal chemistry, Supramolecular chemistry (Host-guest chemistry especially), Bioorganic chemistry, Genetics, and Biochemistry. The field has its origins in the 1950s in the work of Linus Pauling at Caltech. Medicinal or pharmaceutical chemistry is a scientific discipline at the intersection of chemistry and pharmacy involved with designing, synthesizing and developing pharmaceutical drugs. ... Supramolecular chemistry refers to the area of chemistry which focuses on the noncovalent bonding interactions of molecules. ... In supramolecular chemistry, host-guest chemistry describes complexes that are composed of two or more molecules or ions held together in unique structural relationships by hydrogen bonding or by ion pairing or by Van der Waals force other than those of full covalent bonds. ... Biochemistry is the study of the chemical processes and transformations in living organisms. ... For a non-technical introduction to the topic, please see Introduction to genetics. ... Biochemistry is the study of the chemical processes and transformations in living organisms. ... Linus Carl Pauling (February 28, 1901 – August 19, 1994) was an American quantum chemist and biochemist. ... California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (commonly known as Caltech) is a private, coeducational university located in Pasadena, California, in the United States. ...

Systems of Interest

The Proteome

After the completion of the human genome project, many scientists realized the next big target would be the human proteome. As genes ultimately encode cellular proteins, the purpose and ultimate destination of proteins in cells is technically encoded as well. However, in practice, the ability to determine the structure, let alone function, of a protein just from its genetic sequence is impossible. Chemical biology is attempting to answer many questions about the function, structure, affinity and location of all the proteins within a living cell. The Human Genome Project (HGP) is a project to de-code (i. ... The term proteome was coined by Mark Wilkins in 1995 (1) and is used to describe the entire complement of proteins in a given biological organism or system at a given time, i. ... For other meanings of this term, see gene (disambiguation). ...

The global analysis of the proteome is called proteomics. The major challenge in proteomics is that in any given tissue, there are approximately 10,000 different proteins being expressed at levels that vary by as much as six orders of magnitude. Chemical biologist Stuart Schreiber advocates building a “perturbogen” library of small molecules that could specifically activate or deactivate every protein in the human body. Schreiber estimates such a project would require at least a decade. A purpose of the library would be to enable biomedical engineers to develop therapies more efficiently. A number of scientists have developed ways to break the proteome down into meaningful pieces that can be studied more easily. Notably, activity based proteomics developed by Benjamin Cravatt III uses specially designed chemical probes to analyze classes of active enzymes in within a tissue. TECAN Genesis 2000 robot preparing Ciphergen SELDI-TOF protein chips for proteomic pattern analysis. ...   Stuart Schreiber Stuart L. Schreiber (b. ... Julio Pérez Ferrero Library - Cúcuta, Colombia A modern-style library in Chambéry A library is a collection of information resources and services, organized for use, and maintained by a public body, institution, or private individual. ... Human body is entire physical structure of an organism of human being. ... A decade is a set or a group of ten, commonly a period of 10 years in contemporary English, or a period of 10 days in the French revolutionary calendar. ... Fluorophosphonate-rhodamine (FP-Rhodamine) activity based probe for profiling of the serine hydrolase superfamily. ... Benjamin F Cravatt is a professor at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. ...

Another challenge of chemical biology is to decipher the myriad signal transduction pathways involving kinase and phosphatase signaling. In this regard, Kevan Shokat at UCSF has developed a method for selectively inhibiting a given kinase upon the addition of an otherwise biologically orthogonal competitive inhibitor (1-napthylmethyl-PP1). Dr. Shokat's technique involves altering a protein kinase (by mutating the so-called "gatekeeper" residue in the kinase catalytic domain) to contain an unnatural hydrophobic binding pocket which distinguishes it from the other highly homologous cellular kinases, allowing it to be selectively inhibited. A related method has been developed in his lab which uses these so-called "analog-sensitive" kinases to label their substrates using an unnatural ATP (adenosine triphosphate) analog, facilitating their visualization and identification. Identification of enzyme substrates (of which there may be hundreds or thousands, many of which are unknown) is a problem of significant difficulty in proteomics and is vital to the understanding of signal transduction pathways in cells; techniques for labelling cellular substrates of enzymes are a typical approach used by chemical biologists to address this problem. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... In biochemistry, a kinase is a type of enzyme that transfers phosphate groups from high-energy donor molecules, such as ATP, to specific target molecules (substrates); the process is termed phosphorylation. ... A phosphatase is an enzyme that hydrolyses phosphoric acid monoesters into a phosphate ion and a molecule with a free hydroxyl group. ... Adenosine 5-triphosphate (ATP) is a multifunctional nucleotide that is most important as a molecular currency of intracellular energy transfer. ...

Many researchers are working on ways to manipulate the way that proteins are assembled by cellular systems. In this regard, Peter Schultz at the Scripps Research Institute has evolved bacteria to install synthetic, non-natural amino acids into proteins. Peter Schultz is a researcher at The Scripps Research Institute. ... TSRIs Beckman Center for Chemical Sciences The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) is a medical research facility that focuses on research in the basic biomedical sciences. ...

Glycobiology

While DNA, RNA and proteins are all encoded at the genetic level, there exists a separate system of trafficked molecules in the cell that are not encoded directly at any level: sugars. Thus, Glycobiology is an area of dense research for chemical biologists. Metabolic Engineering is a technique used to submit synthetic sugar molecules to living cells in order to probe the function of those sugars in vivo. Carolyn Bertozzi at UC-Berkeley has developed a method for site-specifically reacting molecules the surface of cells that have been labeled with synthetic sugars. The structure of part of a DNA double helix Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions for the development and function of living organisms. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Glycomics, or glycobiology is a discipline of biology that deals with the structure and function of oligosaccharides (chains of sugars). ... Dr. Carolyn Ruth Bertozzi is an award-winning chemist. ...

Combinatorial Chemistry

Some chemical biologists use automated synthesis of many diverse compounds in order to experiment with effects of small molecules on biological processes. More specifically, they observe changes in the behaviors of proteins when small molecules bind to them. Such experiments may supposedly lead to discovery of small molecules with antibiotic or chemotherapeutic properties. Indeed, some scientists (such as Jon Clardy of the Harvard Medical School) hope chemical biology will lead to cures for malaria, tuberculosis, and AIDS. A representation of the 3D structure of myoglobin, showing coloured alpha helices. ... Staphylococcus aureus - Antibiotics test plate. ... Shield of Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is one of the graduate schools of Harvard University. ... Malaria is a vector-borne infectious disease that is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions. ... Tuberculosis (abbreviated as TB for Tubercle Bacillus) is a common and deadly infectious disease caused by the mycobacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis or Mycobacterium bovis. ... This article is about the syndrome. ...

Employing Biology

Many research programs are also focused on employing natural biomolecules to perform a task or act as support for a new chemical method or material. In this regard, researchers have shown that DNA can serve as a template for synthetic chemistry, self-assembling proteins can serve as a structural scaffold for new materials, and RNA can be evolved in vivo to produce new catalytic function.

Research Institutes and Graduate Programs

• University of Leeds MSc in Chemical Biology
• Vanderbilt Institute of Chemical Biology
• The Broad Institute of Harvard & MIT Chemical Biology Program
• The Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University
• University of Michigan Chemical Biology Doctoral Program
• The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at the Scripps Research Institute
• The Institute of Chemical Biology & Drug Discovery at Stony Brook University
• UC-Berkeley Chemical Biology Graduate Program
• UC-San Francisco Chemistry and Chemical Biology Graduate Program
• University of Wisconsin–Madison Chemistry–Biology Interface Training Program
• Yale University Graduate Studies in Chemical Biology
• International Max Planck Research School in Chemical Biology
• McMaster University Graduate Programme in Chemical Biology
• Chemical Biology Platform at Göteborg University

Publications

• ACS Chemical Biology - The new Chemical Biology journal from the American Chemical Society.
• Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry - The Tetrahedron Journal for Research at the Interface of Chemistry and Biology
• ChemBioChem – A European Journal of Chemical Biology
• Chemistry & Biology - An interdisciplinary journal that publishes papers of exceptional interest in all areas at the interface between chemistry and biology.
• Molecular BioSystems - A new high quality chemical biology journal with a particular focus on the interface between chemistry and the -omic sciences and systems biology.
• Nature Chemical Biology - A monthly multidisciplinary journal providing an international forum for the timely publication of significant new research at the interface between chemistry and biology.

See also

• Diversity-oriented synthesis
• DNA-templated synthesis