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Cell Biology

Free Cell Biology study guide: 9 units with summaries, key ideas, flashcards and 270 practice questions with step-by-step solutions.

Lines up with: College cell biology course.

Start studying Cell BiologyFormula and fact sheet

Units

  1. UNIT 01

    Cell Basics and Microscopy

    This unit introduces the cell as the basic unit of life, compares prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, tours the organelles, and explains the microscopy and fractionation methods cell biologists use to study them.
  2. UNIT 02

    Membranes and Membrane Transport

    This unit explains how membranes are built and how cells move ions and molecules across them, from simple diffusion to pumps and gradient-driven transporters.
  3. UNIT 03

    Protein Sorting and the Endomembrane System

    This unit follows proteins from the ribosome to their final address and explains how vesicles move cargo between the ER, Golgi, lysosomes, plasma membrane and the outside of the cell.
  4. UNIT 04

    Energy, Mitochondria and Chloroplasts

    This unit explains how cells capture energy: mitochondria oxidize fuels to build a proton gradient that makes ATP, and chloroplasts use light to do the same while also making NADPH to fix CO₂.
  5. UNIT 05

    The Cytoskeleton and Motility

    This unit covers the three cytoskeletal filament systems, the motor proteins that move along them, and how they power muscle contraction, ciliary beating and cell crawling.
  6. UNIT 06

    Cell Signaling

    This unit explains how cells detect external signals and convert them into internal responses through receptors, second messengers, molecular switches and kinase cascades.
  7. UNIT 07

    The Cell Cycle and Its Control

    This unit explains how cells copy their DNA, divide it equally, and use cyclin–Cdk engines and checkpoints to make sure each step happens once, in order, and only when conditions are right.
  8. UNIT 08

    Cell Death and Cancer

    This unit explains how cells deliberately die through apoptosis, how that program is controlled, and how mutations in growth, death and repair genes lead to cancer.
  9. UNIT 09

    Cell Junctions, Adhesion and the Extracellular Matrix

    This unit explains how cells stick to one another and to the extracellular matrix, how junctions seal, strengthen and connect tissues, and how the matrix itself is built and sensed.