Definition of "molecular biology" []

• The branch of biology that deals with the formation, structure, and function of macromolecules essential to life, such as nucleic acids and proteins, and especially with their role in cell replication and the transmission of genetic information. (noun)
• The branch of biology that deals with the manipulation of DNA so that it can be sequenced or mutated. If mutated, the DNA is often inserted into the genome of an organism to study the biological effects of the mutation. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "All are medical doctors except Kabat-Zinn, who received a Ph.D. in molecular biology from MIT, where he studied under Salvador Luria, a Nobel laureate in medicine."
• "Discoveries in the fields of physics, cosmology, and molecular biology during the past few decades have moved us ever closer to what might be termed a metaphysical truth."