The Department has been active in Molecular Biology since the advent of recombinant DNA techniques. However, this has been strengthened by a series of hires in the 1990s and 2000s and the techniques of molecular biology now extend throughout research in the Department. The Department is taking a leading role in new research and training initiatives in Synthetic Biology, which the Department defines as the combination of Biology with the principles of Engineering to design and build organisms and biological systems with defined purpose.