INTRODUCTION TO MOLECULAR-BIOLOGY

Physiological events are regulated by a number of factors acting at several levels, i.e., molecular, subcellular, cellular organ-tissue, and whole organism. Classically, the study of human diseases was approached at the whole organism and/or organ-tissue level. Lastly, pathologic conditions are also studied at the molecular, subcellular, and cellular levels. This new approach comes from the development and application of molecular biology to medicine. Molecular biology studies the process by which genetic message is translated into final proteins synthesized by techniques to begin to unravel complex biological problems that have direct relevance to understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of medical problems. The objective of this article is to provide a comprehensive discussion of the biochemical and physiological foundations of molecular biology and its application to clinical medicine. In addition, this brief review is intented to provide a framework within which evaluate research articles in this field of growing importance to clinical nephrology.