化学生物学家应用化学研究生物系统，以便在分子水平上洞悉生物学问题，更好地利用生物学，并开发新药物。化学生物学是一门旨在设计和开发分子策略和工具（包括小分子药物/探针）以表征和验证其生物学作用机制的科学学科。这样，化学生物学是化学，基础生物医学和兽医学研究以及治疗学之间的主要桥梁。该领域的研究是高度跨学科的，涵盖了传染病和癌症新疗法的发现以及用于合成复杂分子的微生物的设计。该领域的教职员工与校园内其他多个部门和计划合作，在化学和生物学的界面上进行前沿研究。
Chemical biologists apply chemistry to study biological systems in order to gain insight into biological problems at the molecular level, to better utilize biology, and to develop new drugs. Chemical biology is the scientific discipline that aims to design and develop molecular strategies and tools including small molecule drugs/probes to characterize and validate their biological mechanism of action. In this way, chemical biology is the key bridge at the interface between chemistry, basic biomedical and veterinary research, and therapeutic science. Research in this area is highly interdisciplinary and spans the discovery of novel treatments for infectious disease and cancer to the design of microbes for the synthesis of complex molecules. Faculty in this area collaborate with a number of other departments and programs across campus to conduct cutting edge research at the interface of chemistry and biology.