Basics of Molecular Biology

Alexander Vologodskii graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Soviet Union, in 1972.  Since then and till 1992 he worked in the Biophysical Laboratory at the Institute of Molecular Genetics, in Moscow. He received a Ph.D. in biophysics in 1975 and the highest Russian scientific degree, Doctor of Science, in 1985. In 1992 he relocated to the United States, where he was a visiting scientist at UC Berkeley for three years. From 1995 to 2011 he was the head of the research laboratory at New York University. He published about 120 papers and two monographs. Vologodskii works now as a freelance science writer.

• Introduction.- The major processes in the biological world.- Enzymes, conformational changes, energy, and molecular motors.- The cells.- Genome.- Regulation of gene expression and protein activity.- DNA replication, its fidelity, mutations, and repair.- Transduction of signals.- Multicellular organisms and their development.- Biological defense I. Protection from foreign nucleic acids.- Biological defense II. The immune system of vertebrates.- Pathogens.- Cancer.- Index.