A Personal Reflection on the Chemistry-Biology Interface

Chemists, including the most prominent ones, have always had a profound interest in living systems and biomolecules. Here, I describe few historical endeavors at the interface of Chemistry and Biology that inspired me and shaped my research interests. These examples highlight the uniqueness of implementing a chemist's mindset to fundamental biological questions, by obtaining biological insight via structure-function analyses and by implementing the fundamentals of physical chemistry. I therefore see Chemical Biology as the study of biological systems and molecules with the mindset of a chemist, and in my case, of a physical organic chemist. To me, addressing biological questions with the toolset and mindset of a chemist seems so obvious and natural that there may be no need to define a specialized sub-discipline.