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 biology 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.
Chemical biology is one of many interfacial sciences that are characteristic of a general trend away from older, reductionist fields toward those whose goals are to achieve a description of scientific holism. In this sense, it is related to other fields such as proteomics. Chemical biology has scientific, historical and philosophical roots in medicinal chemistry, supramolecular chemistry (particularly host-guest chemistry), bioorganic chemistry, pharmacology, genetics, biochemistry, and metabolic engineering.
Read more about this topic: Chemical Biology
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