Career Profiles

Career Profiles

Genetics & Molecular Biology

Science fact is infinitely more positive and only slightly less amazing than science fiction. Life, as we know it, is a function of the genetic codes that all living things carry in nearly every cell of their structures. The science of genetics is nothing less than understanding the most intimate secrets of life.

An explosion of knowledge and increased successes in molecular biology has meant that many problems considered formidable just a decade or so ago are now being or on their way to being solved. Molecular biologists have contributed to an ever increasing understanding of the origin of the human species; to the creation of genetically engineered new drugs; and to the sequencing of the entire genome of a variety of species, including disease-causing micro-organisms, agriculturally important plants, and the human organism itself.

What is Genetics and Molecular Biology?

Genetics is the science of heredity. By understanding the mechanisms which govern the way genetic information is received and expressed by individual organisms during their life and also how it is passed onto succeeding generations,scientists are increasingly able to understand the biochemical processes of all living things.

Geneticists study what genes are, how they are duplicated and transferred, and how they change by mutation and selection during evolution. Genetics is a component of virtually every area of biology and can be found in many subfields within biology including; evolution, behaviour genetics, developmental biology, cytogenetics, population genetics, clinical and molecular genetics.

Molecular biology encompasses the molecular aspects of biochemistry, genetics and cell biology. It seeks to explain the relationships between the structure and function of biological molecules and how these relationships contribute to the operation and control of biochemical processes. Molecularbiology is, by its very nature, reductionist. That is, it deals with ever smaller pieces (ie molecules) of the whole (ie cell). Molecular biology concentrateson the interplay between genes and biochemical function and allows us to determine the precise role of DNA-based information (genes) in the activity of all living things.

The ultimate goal of molecular biologyis to understand the five basic cell behaviour patterns – growth, division, specialisation, movement and interaction – in terms of the various molecules that are responsible for them. That is, molecular biology wants to generate acomplete description of the structure, function and inter-relationships of the cell’s macromolecules, and thereby to understand why living cells behave the way they do.

Download a complete copy of Career View on Genetics & Molecular Biology below.

Career View on Genetics & Molecular Biology is part of the Career View series produced by Career Development and Employmentat Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. While the booklet was originally developed for a New Zealand audience, we believe that graduates in Australia will also find the information within it relevant and useful.