Chemical biology facts for kids

Chemical biology is a science that combines the fields of chemistry and biology. It involves the application of chemical techniques and tools, often compounds produced through synthetic chemistry, to the study and manipulation of biological systems.

It is different from biochemistry. Biochemistry is the study of the chemistry of biological molecules. For example, a biochemist studies the three-dimensional structure of a protein and how that structure relates to the chemistry of the protein. Also, biochemistry studies the way enzymes work. Chemical biologists use chemical principles to modulate systems. They do this to either investigate biology relationships or create new functions. In this way, the research done by chemical biologists is often closer to that of cell biology than biochemistry. Biochemists work in the chemistry of biology, but chemical biologists work in chemistry applied to biology.

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  Overview of metagenomic methods

See also

In Spanish: Biología química para niños