Basic Cancer Biology

Overview

Biology is a branch of the natural sciences that studies the structure, function, growth,origin, evolution, distribution and classification of all living things.

In 1953 the science of Biology was greatly expanded when James Watson and Francis Crick unveiled their model of a chemical structure that forms the blueprint of every living organism and called it DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid). DNA is the material that carries genetic information inside of our cells. How the body translates that genetic information, depends on how the DNA is organized (more about this later). The genetic code was broken and because scientists now better understood this, many discoveries followed.

We will not discuss all areas of biology but rather we will start with the basics of cell biology for background purposes, and then discuss the cell cycle, as many mutations occur here, and finally focus on various aspects of cancer genetics. This will provide you with the background for understanding cancer research, which is our goal. We have designed the research section to build on itself so we will discuss many of these topics in more detail in later sections.

• The Cell
• The Cell Cycle
• Cancer Genetics
• Genetic Structure
• The Language of Biology
• What Causes Cancer
• Genetic Variation
• Personalized Medicine