Chemical biology

'Chemical biology' refers to various academic teaching and research programs integrating chemistry and biology, focusing on biological discovery and applications using chemical tools, thus defining the concepts of programmatic biological discovery through chemistry, and of bringing chemical solutions to biological problems.

Harvard University gives this description of their program:

The goal of the Chemical Biology Program is biological discovery, and its approach is the seamless integration of principles and experimental techniques drawn from both chemistry and biology...The focus of chemical biology is on biology, which distinguishes it from traditional chemistry, and it uses chemical tools, which distinguishes it from traditional biology. The field also has deep connections with medicine and pharmacology.

For more on the scope of chemical biology, see the full programmatic descriptions at:

• Harvard’s Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology.

• The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology. The Scripps Research Institute.
  • The Skaggs Institute's mission is to improve human health with cures for diseases, and to do so by supporting research at the interface of chemistry and biology.