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What Is Biochemistry?

Biochemistry is the study of the chemistry of living things. This includes organic molecules and their chemical reactions. Most people consider biochemistry to be synonymous with molecular biology.

What Types of Molecules Do Biochemists Study?

The principal types of biological molecules, or biomolecules are:

• carbohydrates
• lipids
• proteins
• nucleic acids

Many of these molecules are complex molecules called polymers, which are made up of monomer subunits. Biochemical molecules are based oncarbon.

What Is Biochemistry Used For?

• Biochemistry is used to learn about the biological processes which take place in cells and organisms. 
• Biochemistry may be used to study the properties of biological molecules, for a variety of purposes. For example, a biochemist may study the characteristics of the keratin in hair so that a shampoo may be developed that enhances curliness or softness. 
• Biochemists find uses for biomolecules. For example, a biochemist may use a certain lipid as a food additive. 
• Alternatively, a biochemist might find a substitute for a usual biomolecule. For example, biochemists help to develop artificial sweeteners. 
• Biochemists can help cells to produce new products. Gene therapy is within the realm of biochemistry. The development of biological machinery falls within the realm of biochemistry.

What Does a Biochemist Do?

Many biochemists work in chemistry labs. Some biochemists may focus on modeling, which would lead them to work with computers. Some biochemists work in the field, studying a biochemical system in an organism. Biochemists typically are associated with other scientists and engineers. Some biochemists are associated with universities and they may teach in addition to conducting research. Usually their research allows them to have a normal work schedule, based in one location, with a good salary and benefits.

What Disciplines Are Related to Biochemistry?

Biochemistry is closely related to other biological sciences that deal with molecules. There is considerable overlap between these disciplines:

• Molecular Genetics
• Pharmacology
• Molecular Biology
• Chemical Biology

Is this thing they call “biochemistry” important?

How about we learn about it’s importance in life?

 

Biochemistry is the collection of every organic chemical reaction in living organisms. Without functioning biochemical reactions, life in any form would not exist.

In humans, at the most basic level, properly functioning balances of chemical reactions within the body are responsible for health while disfunctioning balances of chemical reactions are responsible for diseases. Biochemical reactions are responsible for everything from metabolism to genetics. The study of biochemistry is important for deepening our understanding of how organisms function. Understanding biochemistry plays a large role in understanding the genetic basis for some diseases, the pharmacological effects of medications, the intricacies of metabolism, and the most basic differences between organisms.

Obesity :(

 

Obesity is essentially an excessive accumulation of triacylglycerols in fatty tissue that is the net result of excessive energy intake compared to energy usage. Severe forms of the disease are most likely to have a predominantly genetic basis and this is probably polygenic. The ‘thrifty gene’ hypothesis also describes the disturbance that a modern environment, including higher energy intake and decreased physical activity, has on otherwise advantageous genetic variations. While the physical consequences of obesity, such as arthritis, are debilitating and costly, the metabolic consequences are the drivers behind the modern epidemics of insulin resistance, diabetes, fatty liver disease, coronary artery disease, hypertension and polycystic ovary syndrome. The pathophysiological mechanisms behind these diseases are probably a combination of the toxic metabolic effects of free fatty acids and adipokines – the numerous messengers that adipose tissue has been discovered to produce.

Biochemistry Proves The Existence of God

This is pretty amazing !!

Reflections :)

What did I learn this week?

Week ten

Two more weeks of teaching, there is just so many mixed emotions. I feel scared, because exams are coming up, but yet excited because that I got through the first year of University. However this week I felt was filled with biochemistry. We had tutorials where we did enzymes and glycolysis. This tutorial session was pretty laid back, since Sir recognized that we had a lot going on, like our exam next week, this blog. And it’s true though, biochemistry hasn’t gotten simple. The work maybe, but the level/amount of the things that had to be done, just to make up that percentage, it was a lot. But as I always say that one percent can be the difference between a pass or a fail. This week, we also had an online exam. We could of done both twice with an hour difference between. But I did well in the carbohydrates and amino acid one, and only did that once. But the glycolysis I too k for granted. But eventually I did it back after looking at the video’s and did much more satisfactory. But these quizzes were really helpful with studying fir the in course exam we had in the coming week. So I was glad that Sir gave us it at this time.  We also had two quizzes in class. One unexpected and one that we knew about. Both were simple. But still made recognize that I still had a bulk of work on my shoulders.

Week eleven

This is the week of the exam. And Sir made it alright for us to carry half of a computer page filled on both sides with notes. I wasn’t at all nervous, even though I knew there were a couple things I didn’t perfect in. But the amount of time I have been though these things if not in a tutorial, in a quiz and if not in a quiz, but looking at the video. So hopefully I remembered it. But the mcq’s part of the exam was nice, pretty simple. The structured part was nothing new, however the enzymes questions were easy, and so was the glycolysis, but one carbs question I did remember, but didn’t know how to exactly expand the question, so I wrote from what I knew off my head. Hopefully I did well, because over all, the exam was one that I could have handled. Labs had finished so, we had no labs this week. Now that labs are done, and we have no more exams, all for biochemistry that I had to complete is this blog. And I have to admit, this blog is fun doing, but it extremely time consuming.

Week twelve

Final week, last week of blogging, since we still have this blog to do. We however still had tutorials, just like we do every week, but it wasn’t marked out of 2, since Sir recognized we still have a bulk of work to finish off. After this week we have one more week of revision and then that’s it for semester II year one. Time for year two. But first I just would like to get through this week and end of exams. This week however was somewhat hectic, since literally every day of this week I have something due. And everything I have due is for marks. One of these things being the enzymes lab we had in week nine. This lab was a lot to write up, since numerous different results were carried out. But thankfully I had it done by the end of the night and printed on the day, ready to hand up.

Reflections

How was my week?

Week seven

So, it’s the seventh week and time is really flying fast. This semester is left with only six more teaching weeks. That is pretty scary. However this is the time to make use of my time. Something that I have been hearing from since a young age, “burn the midnight oil”. It’s shocking to come to reality to the fact that my first year of UWI is coming to an end. This week of Biochemistry wasn’t much of a hassle, since we had no lab, no tutorial and no quiz. But we had two assignments to submit online. One with amino acids and proteins and the other with carbohydrates. Both the assignments were more of research information, and most weren’t really pertaining to the course syllabus. However, the information helped a lot with better and broader understanding of what the topics are all about. And the way in which they relate to real life. Consequently some of the questions were pretty difficult to answer.

Week eight

Week eight just reminded me of how close exams are. And this year although for my faculty our GPA don’t count, that doesn’t mean I would take advantage of that. However for this week we still don’t have a lab, but next week we do. That lab would be on enzymes. We haven’t had the lab, because sir wants us to finish up both the assignments and finish up the topic. So when we do the lab, we would have a clear understanding of the topic. We also didn’t have any quiz. However we did in fact have a tutorial. To be honest I wasn’t as prepared for this session. I was for the first half, but eventually some things were unclear to me. But what was done was the LB plot graph on enzymes and answering the lysine tutorial question. The titration question was pretty simple.

Week nine

Finally we had our lab in this week. This was our last lab. And it was surprisingly a lot of fun. My friends and I ended up going to the evening stream, whilst our usual stream is in the morning on a Friday. Our procedure entailed the use of a lot of different solutions. Our groups of three had to time and observe the color change in the mixture. We literally finished last on the bench which was extremely tedious.  The solution took over an hour to change, and we had to time 5 different test tubes with different concentrations. All in all, the lab was fun, since we used our extra time socializing. But yet again we didn’t have a quiz. But we found out that we had an in course exam coming up. So time to buck up, and not leave this lab to last minute. Because the faster we finished the more time we have to study.

Tell me about it :)

L-L-L-i-p-i-d-s-s-s

Six facts about lipids

1. Fats and oils are not polymers like carbohydrates and proteins.
2. Lipids are made up of fatty acids and glycerol . The most common arrangement is found in triglycerides.
3. Fatty acids have an acid group and a side chain group.
4. If the R group has single bonds, the fatty acid is saturated. If it has double bonds, it is unsaturated.
5. Phospholipids are important in cell membranes.

6.The presence of lipids can be checked with the emulsion test.

C-E-L-L-S :)

Lets learn about Cell’s in 47 seconds….