This introductory college-level molecular biology textbook builds upon concepts from first-year high school biology and chemistry courses to elucidate essential concepts in molecular biology, biochemistry, cell biology, and genetics. It is appropriate for college courses and high school courses taught at the college level. Over 170 color figures clearly illustrate key concepts. The goal of this work is to clarify concepts in a streamlined manner, not to be an encyclopedic collection of facts. Connections are explicitly made to prior knowledge and key high school chemistry concepts are reviewed. The biotechnology driving basic science research and translational medicine is explained so that this textbook can serve as a companion to a student beginning molecular biology research. Highlighted techniques include PCR, Sanger DNA sequencing, next-generation DNA sequencing, genetic engineering of plasmids, iGEM gene assembly, principles of gene expression, gene transfer into bacteria and mammalian cells, strategies in drug design, human gene therapy, CRISPR and other genome editing techniques. Human disease is explored from the standpoint of understanding its basic science in order to develop effective treatments.

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO BIOCHEMISTRY AND CELL BIOLOGY: Organic Molecules; The Thermodynamics of Life; Organic Molecules and Thermodynamics in the Cell; Biotechnology and Alternative Energy. CHAPTER 2: PROTEIN STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION; Protein Biochemistry; Enzyme; Use and Manipulation of Proteins in Biotechnology. CHAPTER 3: DNA REPLICATION, REPAIR AND GENETIC ENGINEERING; Chromosomes; DNA Biochemistry; DNA Replication; DNA Repair Enzymes; Genetic Engineering. CHAPTER 4: THE REGULATION OF GENE EXPRESSION: The Regulation of Transcription; The Organization of a Gene; Posttranscriptional Regulation of mRNA Levels in Eukaryotes; The Programming of Transcriptional Patterns During Development; Measuring Levels of Gene Expression. CHAPTER 5: GENOME EVOLUTION: Genome Evolution; Cancer; Mutation and Selection in the Immune System. CHAPTER 6: EMERGING MOLECULAR BIOLOGY, BIOTECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE: Precision Medicine: Analyzing Individual Genomes and Transcriptomes; Emerging Methods for Disease Treatment. SELECT TOPICS INCLUDE: Mechanisms of dominant (gain of function, dominant negative, haploinsufficiency) and recessive phenotypes, protein misfolding and aggregation disorders, prion disease, FRET, PCR, cohesin in mitosis, Sanger DNA sequencing, next generation DNA sequencing, the Human Genome Project, DNA fingerprinting, mechanisms of mutation and DNA repair, NHEJ, homologous recombination, restriction enzymes, cloning strategies, strategies for introducing genes into prokaryotes and eukaryotes, gene parts, mRNA stability, euchromatin and heterochromatin, histone modifications, chromatin packaging, topologically associated domains, organismal cloning, stem cells, DNA methylation patterns, genomic imprinting, X chromosome inactivation, RNAi, siRNAs, microRNAs, lncRNAs, microarrays, patterns of conserved synteny in genomes, natural selection of phenotypes and genome evolution, gene duplication, hallmarks of cancer, Knudson''s 2-Hit Hypothesis, tumor suppressor genes, oncogenes, cancer mutations in the context of signaling pathways, cell cycle checkpoints, telomeres and telomerase, the role of p53, mitotic errors in chromosome segregation in cancer, causes of genomic instability in cancer, gene rearrangement and selection in antibody-producing cells, precision medicine, genome or exome sequencing, recent advances in gene therapy, genome editing, zinc finger endonucleases, TALENs, CRISPR/Cas9, strategies for drug design, role of molecular dynamics modeling in drug design. This textbook was created to replace direct lecturing, to support teaching through inquiry and experimentation.

Supporting materials are available on the author''s website: HackettMolecularBiology.blogspot.com.