• Enzyme structure–function and catalytic specificity become the guiding experimental paradigm: deliberate alteration of enzyme conformation and activity, coupled with analyses of enzyme immobilization and peroxidase specificity, framing early molecular biology around protein function [1], [6], [13].

• Peptide/protein chemistry as the primary toolkit for molecular biology: investigations into peptide formation during protein hydrolysis, dipeptide synthesis, and systematic polypeptide synthesis to map protein assembly and function [9], [11], [12], [18].

• Centrosome and chromatin organization emerge as core units of cellular architecture in early molecular biology: studies on sea-urchin egg chromatin remodeling and centrosomal homology reveal a shift toward biomolecular architecture as the substrate of developmental regulation [5], [8].

• Chemical biology of biomolecules: amino acid chemistry, peptide synthesis and derivatives, and sulfur-protein chemistry frame biomolecular function studies, integrating synthesis with functional analysis [2], [17], [18], [20].