Chemical Biology

Abstract

Chemical biology is a multidisciplinary field that uses chemical tools to investigate biological research questions and harnesses biological tools to advance chemistry. Although the research philosophy of chemical biology is by no means new, it has distinguished itself from classical biochemistry and biological chemistry by the use of exogenous chemistry to interrogate or modulate biological function. In contrast, biochemistry and biological chemistry tend to use standard molecular biology approaches to understand endogenous biological processes. That said, significant overlap exists between the disciplines and opinions diverge over any true definition of chemical biology given the youth of the term. Chemical biology brings together chemistry and biology to investigate molecules and systems, and is providing a bridge that is revolutionizing scientific approaches in life sciences, chemistry and medicine.