The course will cover a range of molecular biology topics, presented in a manner that highlights experimental analysis of selected molecular processes. The first several sessions are a review of basic molecular genetics, experimental methods, and chromosomes. The following sessions focus on the dynamics of DNA – replication, recombination, and mobility. This is followed by an exhaustive analysis of RNA metabolism – transcription, processing, stability, and catalytic activity. Interwoven in these lectures is an emphasis on the historically important experiments that shaped our understanding of DNA, RNA, and proteins. The course exposes students to the molecular and computational tools needed for intensive studies on gene organization, genetic information flow, and gene regulation. In the final third of the course, relatively new topics in molecular biology will be examined, with an emphasis on epigenetics, noncoding RNA and regulatory RNA.