Provides engineering perspectives on the building blocks of living cells and materials for biotechnology. Focuses on origins and synthesis in life and the laboratory, including biological pathways for sythesis of DNA, RNA and proteins; transduction, transmission, storage and retrieval of biological informatin by macromoleclues; polyerase chain reaction, restriction enzymes, DNA sequencing; energetics of protein folding and trafficking; mechanisms of enzymatic catalysts and receptor-ligand binding; cooperative proteins, multi-protein complexes and control of metabolic pathways; generation, storage, transmission and release of biomolecular energy; and methods for study and manipulation of molecules which will include isolation, purification, detection, chemical characterization, imaging and visualization of structure.