Biochemistry topics include biochemistry of living cells, metabolism, molecular biochemistry, genetics, and animal/plant organisms. Biochemists study chemicals and processes in living organisms, often focusing on a single cell. Topics can be classified by fundamental chemistry or function, including bonding, transport, kinetics, and signaling. Understanding basic building blocks, such as individual cells, is fundamental to a biochemistry career. There is overlap with molecular biology and other biological fields.
The most common biochemistry topics generally fall into the following categories: biochemistry of the living cell, metabolism, animal or plant organisms, molecular biochemistry, and genetics. Within each of these areas, biochemists focus on the study of chemicals and biochemical processes that occur in living organisms. The study of a single living cell is usually one of the most common biochemistry topics ever.
One of the main reasons why biochemical research often focuses on the chemistry of a single cell is that there are many types of chemical processes common to living cells in a wide range of different organisms, both animals and plants. Cell biology is also known as cytology, and understanding the biochemistry of a cell underlies a very large proportion of the other biochemistry topics. Understanding the similarities and differences that exist between different cell types is usually very important for biochemists who study genetics, metabolism and various areas of animal biochemistry, for example.
Some biochemists prefer to classify biochemistry topics according to the underlying fundamental chemistry involved. Such categorization might, for example, start with the basic topics of fat structure, protein structure, and carbohydrate structure. Once the basic structure of the main molecules involved in biochemical processes is understood, more advanced studies can explain the functions that different molecules typically perform in a living cell.
Functional biochemistry topics could therefore follow structural biochemistry or molecular biology topics. These might include topics like bonding or how different molecules interact with each other; transport, i.e. how molecules enter and leave living cells; kinetics, or chemical transformations; and signaling, or how living cells communicate with each other. A biochemist studying via this route is likely to build a good foundation in basic biochemistry which can then be used to branch out into various different specializations in a biochemistry career.
The different topics studied in a biochemistry laboratory can be very broad. Understanding the basic building blocks of life, the individual living cells, forms the foundation for most if not all biochemistry job opportunities and can be considered the fundamental starting point for a career in biochemistry. In regards to biochemistry topics, there is also considerable overlap between biochemistry, molecular biology, and other fields of biological study.
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