Biochemistry studies chemical processes in living organisms, including photosynthesis, glycolysis, protein expression, and more. It was born in 1828 when urea was accidentally synthesized from inorganic precursors. Biochemists study organic polymers such as carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids, which play structural roles in the body. The field has useful applications in medicine, agriculture, and molecular biology.
Biochemistry is the study of chemical processes and reactions that occur within living organisms. It can be considered a subdivision of both chemistry and biology, although the skills and techniques used within it place great emphasis on traditional chemistry.
For a long time it was thought that living and non-living matter were fundamentally different. Most scientists believed that only living beings could create special biological molecules, from other biological molecules obtained through food. These molecules were thought to be imbued with a “life force” that made life possible. In 1828, the German chemist Freidrich Wöhler put an end to this by accidentally synthesizing the organic chemical urea – a major component of urine – from inorganic precursors. The field of biochemistry was born.
Since 1828, field studies have led scientists to understand how plants extract energy from the sun (photosynthesis); how animals convert glucose into the body’s energy currency, ATP (glycolysis); why muscles burn when a person exercises vigorously (the production of lactic acid); how proteins are synthesized in the cell (protein expression); and more. Because living things tend to be the most useful and important arrangements of matter on Earth from the perspective of many people, knowledge of their inner workings has useful applications in many areas, including medicine, agriculture, and molecular biology.
Some molecules studied by biochemists include carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. Most of these are organic polymers, meaning they consist mostly of simple molecular patterns (monomers) repeated many times in a chain, sometimes thousands of times. The primary elements found in organic compounds are carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus, with trace amounts of chlorine, sulfur, potassium, sodium, magnesium, iron, and a few others.
Many of the molecules in the body, including carbohydrates and proteins, play structural roles. Proteins are made directly based on genetic instructions and are among the most complex organic molecules. Nucleic acids are the building blocks of genetic instructions (DNA and RNA) present in all forms of life, from humans to viruses. The distinct pattern of nucleic acids found in the nuclei of cells of a species is called a genome. Then there are lipids, the umbrella term for many water-insoluble biomolecules. Body fat is made up of lipids.
Biochemistry is studied every day by tens of thousands of professionals. They seek to better understand how life works and how people can protect it and use it to improve lives.
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