Foreword

Inside the knowledge that includes every living cell, the molecular biology is the science that takes as aims the study of the processes that are developed in the living beings from a molecular point of view. In a modern sense, the molecular biology tries to explain the phenomena of life in terms of their macromolecular properties. Two macromolecules, in particular, are its study object: the nucleic acids, the most used being Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the main component of genes, and the proteins, which are the active agents of the living organisms. Inside the Project Human Genome, that was a project of scientific research with the fundamental target to determine the sequence of pairs of chemical bases that compose DNA and to identify approximately 20.000-25.000 genes of the human genome from a physical and functional point of view; it is possible to define the molecular biology as the study of the structure, function and composition of the molecules that are biologically important.

Hence, this area is related to other fields from biology to chemistry, and particularly genetic and biochemical engineering. The molecular biology concerns principally the understanding of the interactions of different systems in the cell, wherein it includes many relations, among them, between DNA with RNA, the synthesis of proteins, the metabolism, and how all these interactions are regulated to afford a correct functioning of the cell.

Therefore, the present book entitled “Protocols used in Molecular Biology” mainly includes the most recent and advance molecular biology protocols with a concise introduction, materials and chemicals required, step-by-step procedure, the trouble shooting tips and finally the applications of protocols. This protocol book includes essential techniques of proteomics, genomics, cell culture, epigenetic modification and structural biology with a special focus on the fundamental applications of each protocol, which are lacking in most of the protocol books. This protocol book will be significantly important for the academicians, molecular biologists, graduates and undergraduate students engaged in basic and clinical research. Protocols of this book can be utilized to unravel the problem of cancer biology, genetics, neuroscience and many more. In particular, a neuroscientist can utilize this protocol book to isolate RNA and DNA from brain tissues.

In this sense, we believe that the knowledge that will be acquired by the reading of the chapters contained in this book edited by Prof. Sandeep Kumar Singh, and the later discussions on every topic, will give to the readers an important and valuable tool to understand the different biological and molecular methods that take place in the organism and the functionalities that make a clear differentiation between every organ and each basic molecular structure of our human body.