Medical biology
Encyclopedia
Medical biology is a field of biology that has practical applications in medicine
, health care
and laboratory diagnostics. It includes many biomedical
disciplines and areas of specialty that typically contain the "bio-" prefix such as:
Medical biology is the cornerstone of modern health care
and laboratory diagnostics. It concernes a wide range of scientific and technological aproches: from an in vitro diagnostics
to the in vitro fertilisation
, from the molecular mechanisms of a cystic fibrosis
to the population dynamics of the HIV
virus
, from the understanding molecular interactions to the study of the carcinogenesis
, from a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) to the gene therapy
.
Medical biology based on molecular biology
combines all issues of developing molecular medicine
into large-scale structural and functional relationships of the human genome
, transcriptome
, proteome
and metabolome
with the particular point of view of devising new technologies for prediction, diagnosis and therapy
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
, health care
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
and laboratory diagnostics. It includes many biomedical
Biomedicine
Biomedicine is a branch of medical science that applies biological and other natural-science principles to clinical practice,. Biomedicine, i.e. medical research, involves the study of physiological processes with methods from biology, chemistry and physics. Approaches range from understanding...
disciplines and areas of specialty that typically contain the "bio-" prefix such as:
- molecular biologyMolecular biologyMolecular biology is the branch of biology that deals with the molecular basis of biological activity. This field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry...
, biochemistryBiochemistryBiochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...
, biophysicsBiophysicsBiophysics is an interdisciplinary science that uses the methods of physical science to study biological systems. Studies included under the branches of biophysics span all levels of biological organization, from the molecular scale to whole organisms and ecosystems...
, biotechnologyBiotechnologyBiotechnology is a field of applied biology that involves the use of living organisms and bioprocesses in engineering, technology, medicine and other fields requiring bioproducts. Biotechnology also utilizes these products for manufacturing purpose...
, cell biologyCell biologyCell biology is a scientific discipline that studies cells – their physiological properties, their structure, the organelles they contain, interactions with their environment, their life cycle, division and death. This is done both on a microscopic and molecular level...
, embryologyEmbryologyEmbryology is a science which is about the development of an embryo from the fertilization of the ovum to the fetus stage...
, - nanobiotechnologyNanobiotechnologyBionanotechnology, nanobiotechnology, and nanobiology are terms that refer to the intersection of nanotechnology and biology. Given that the subject is one that has only emerged very recently, bionanotechnology and nanobiotechnology serve as blanket terms for various related technologies.This...
, biological engineeringBiological engineeringBiological engineering, biotechnological engineering or bioengineering is the application of concepts and methods of biology to solve problems in life sciences, using engineering's own analytical and synthetic methodologies and also its traditional...
, laboratory medical biology, - cytologyCytologyCytology means "the study of cells".Cytology is that branch of life science, which deals with the study of cells in terms of structure, function and chemistry.Based on usage it can refer to:...
, cytogeneticsCytogeneticsCytogenetics is a branch of genetics that is concerned with the study of the structure and function of the cell, especially the chromosomes. It includes routine analysis of G-Banded chromosomes, other cytogenetic banding techniques, as well as molecular cytogenetics such as fluorescent in situ...
, geneticsGeneticsGenetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
, gene therapyGene therapyGene therapy is the insertion, alteration, or removal of genes within an individual's cells and biological tissues to treat disease. It is a technique for correcting defective genes that are responsible for disease development...
, - bioinformaticsBioinformaticsBioinformatics is the application of computer science and information technology to the field of biology and medicine. Bioinformatics deals with algorithms, databases and information systems, web technologies, artificial intelligence and soft computing, information and computation theory, software...
, biostatisticsBiostatisticsBiostatistics is the application of statistics to a wide range of topics in biology...
, systems biologySystems biologySystems biology is a term used to describe a number of trends in bioscience research, and a movement which draws on those trends. Proponents describe systems biology as a biology-based inter-disciplinary study field that focuses on complex interactions in biological systems, claiming that it uses...
, - microbiologyMicrobiologyMicrobiology is the study of microorganisms, which are defined as any microscopic organism that comprises either a single cell , cell clusters or no cell at all . This includes eukaryotes, such as fungi and protists, and prokaryotes...
, virologyVirologyVirology is the study of viruses and virus-like agents: their structure, classification and evolution, their ways to infect and exploit cells for virus reproduction, the diseases they cause, the techniques to isolate and culture them, and their use in research and therapy...
, parasitologyParasitologyParasitology is the study of parasites, their hosts, and the relationship between them. As a biological discipline, the scope of parasitology is not determined by the organism or environment in question, but by their way of life...
, - physiologyPhysiologyPhysiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
, pathologyPathologyPathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....
, - toxicologyToxicologyToxicology is a branch of biology, chemistry, and medicine concerned with the study of the adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms...
, and many others that generally concern life sciencesLife sciencesThe life sciences comprise the fields of science that involve the scientific study of living organisms, like plants, animals, and human beings. While biology remains the centerpiece of the life sciences, technological advances in molecular biology and biotechnology have led to a burgeoning of...
as applied to medicineMedicineMedicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
.
Medical biology is the cornerstone of modern health care
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
and laboratory diagnostics. It concernes a wide range of scientific and technological aproches: from an in vitro diagnostics
In vitro diagnostics
In vitro diagnostic tests are medical devices intended to perform diagnoses from assays in a test tube, or more generally in a controlled environment outside a living organism...
to the in vitro fertilisation
In vitro fertilisation
In vitro fertilisation is a process by which egg cells are fertilised by sperm outside the body: in vitro. IVF is a major treatment in infertility when other methods of assisted reproductive technology have failed...
, from the molecular mechanisms of a cystic fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis is a recessive genetic disease affecting most critically the lungs, and also the pancreas, liver, and intestine...
to the population dynamics of the HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
virus
Virus
A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...
, from the understanding molecular interactions to the study of the carcinogenesis
Carcinogenesis
Carcinogenesis or oncogenesis is literally the creation of cancer. It is a process by which normal cells are transformed into cancer cells...
, from a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) to the gene therapy
Gene therapy
Gene therapy is the insertion, alteration, or removal of genes within an individual's cells and biological tissues to treat disease. It is a technique for correcting defective genes that are responsible for disease development...
.
Medical biology based on molecular biology
Molecular biology
Molecular biology is the branch of biology that deals with the molecular basis of biological activity. This field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry...
combines all issues of developing molecular medicine
Molecular medicine
Molecular medicine is a broad field, where physical, chemical, biological and medical techniques are used to describe molecular structures and mechanisms, identify fundamental molecular and genetic errors of disease, and to develop molecular interventions to correct them...
into large-scale structural and functional relationships of the human genome
Genome
In modern molecular biology and genetics, the genome is the entirety of an organism's hereditary information. It is encoded either in DNA or, for many types of virus, in RNA. The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of the DNA/RNA....
, transcriptome
Transcriptome
The transcriptome is the set of all RNA molecules, including mRNA, rRNA, tRNA, and other non-coding RNA produced in one or a population of cells.-Scope:...
, proteome
Proteome
The proteome is the entire set of proteins expressed by a genome, cell, tissue or organism. More specifically, it is the set of expressed proteins in a given type of cells or an organism at a given time under defined conditions. The term is a portmanteau of proteins and genome.The term has been...
and metabolome
Metabolome
Metabolome refers to the complete set of small-molecule metabolites to be found within a biological sample, such as a single organism...
with the particular point of view of devising new technologies for prediction, diagnosis and therapy
See also
- medical physicsMedical physicsMedical physics is the application of physics to medicine. It generally concerns physics as applied to medical imaging and radiotherapy, although a medical physicist may also work in many other areas of healthcare...
- medical chemistry
- biomedicineBiomedicineBiomedicine is a branch of medical science that applies biological and other natural-science principles to clinical practice,. Biomedicine, i.e. medical research, involves the study of physiological processes with methods from biology, chemistry and physics. Approaches range from understanding...
- laboratory diagnostics
- The Human Genome ProjectHuman Genome ProjectThe Human Genome Project is an international scientific research project with a primary goal of determining the sequence of chemical base pairs which make up DNA, and of identifying and mapping the approximately 20,000–25,000 genes of the human genome from both a physical and functional...
, - The Cancer Genome AtlasThe Cancer Genome AtlasThe Cancer Genome Atlas is a project to catalogue genetic mutations responsible for cancer, using genome analysis techniques started in 2005...
, - The Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine
External links
- M.sc programme in Medical Biology
- Institute of Medical Biology
- The Department of Biomedicine - Master in Medical Biology
- Medical Biology at the University of Amsterdam
- Department of Medical Biology
- Molecular Medicine and Gene Therapy
- CTS: The Clinical and Translational Science journal website
- Molecular Medicine website
- Molecular Medicine and Gene Therapy at Lund University