Biochemistry:

 Chemistry of the living cell

 Biochemistry is the application of chemistry to the study of biological processes at
the cellular and molecular level.
 It deals with the structure and function of cellular components such as proteins,
carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids and other biomolecules.

Three areas to study:

1. Structural and Functional Biochemistry: Chemical structures and 3D arrangements of
molecules.
2. Informational Biochemistry: Language for communication inside and between cells.
3. Bioenergetics: The flow of energy in living organisms and how it is transferred from one
process to another.
History of Biochemistry:
 Only during 17th and 18th centuries, important foundations were laid in many fields
of biology. The 19th century observed the development of very crucial concepts,
which include the cell theory by Schleiden and Schwann, Mendel's study of
inheritance and Darwin's theory of evolution.
 The real push to biochemistry was given in 1828 when total synthesis of urea from
lead cyanate and ammonia was successfully achieved by Wohler who thus initiated
the synthesis of organic compound from inorganic compound.
 Louis Pasteur, during 1857, did a great deal of work on fermentations and pointed out
categorically the central importance of enzymes in this process.
 The break through in enzyme research and hence, biochemistry was made in 1897 by
Edward Buckner when he extracted enzyme from yeast cells in crude form which
could ferment a sugar molecule into alcohol.
 Neuberg introduced the term biochemistry in 1903.
 In 1926, James Sumner established the protein nature of enzyme. He was responsible
for the isolation and crystallization of urease, which provided a breakthrough in
studies of the properties of specific enzymes.
 The first metabolic pathway elucidated was the glycolytic pathway during the first
half of the 20th century by Embden and Meyerhof. Otto Warburg, Cori and Parnas
also made very important contributions relating to glycolytic pathway.
 Krebs established the citric acid and urea cycles during 1930-40. In 1940, Lipmann
described the central role of ATP in biological systems.
 The biochemistry of nucleic acids entered into a phase of exponential growth after the
establishment of the structure of DNA in 1953 by Watson and Crick followed by the
discovery of DNA polymerase by Kornberg in 1956.
 From 1960 onwards, biochemistry plunged into an interdisciplinary phase sharing
much in common with biology and molecular genetics.
  Frederick Sanger's contributions in the sequencing of protein in 1953 and nucleic acid
in 1977 were responsible for further developments in the field of protein and nucleic
acid research.
 The development of recombinant DNA research by Snell and coworkers during 1980
allowed for further growth and emergence of a new field, the genetic engineering.
 Thus, there was progressive evolution of biology to biochemistry and then to
molecular biology, genetic engineering and biotechnology.
 The chronological development of biochemistry and other related fields are given in
Table.

Table: Important Scientists and their Contribution to Biochemistry and other Related
Fields.

Year Scientist Contribution

1780-1789 Lavoisier Recognized that respiration is oxidation and first measured
oxygen consumption by human subject.
1828 Wohler Synthesized the first organic compoulld, urea from
inorganic components.
1837 Berzelius Postulated the catalytic nature of fermentation. He also
identified lactic acid as a product of muscle activity.
1838 Schleiden and Enunciated the cell theory.
Schwann
1854-1864 Louis Pasteur Proved that fermentation is caused by
microorganisms.
1866 Mendel Reported the principles of segregation and
independent assortment of genes.
1869 Miescher Discovered DNA.
1877 Kuhne Proposed the term Enzyme.
1894 Emil Fischer Demonstrated the specificity of enzymes and the lock and
key relationship between enzyme and substrate.
1897 Buckner Discovered alcoholic fermentation in cell-free yeast
extract.
1902 Emil Fischer Demonstrated that proteins are polypeptides.
1903 Neuberg First used the term 'biochemistry'.
1905 Harden and Young Showed the requirement of phosphate in alcoholic
fermentation aIld identified first coenzyme, cozymase,
later shown to be NAD.
1912 Neuberg Proposed chemical pathway for fermentation.
1913 Michaelis and Developed kinetic theory of enzyme action.
Menten
1926 Sumner First crystallized an enzyme, urease aIld proved it to be a
protein.
1933 Embden Meyerhof Demonstrated crucial intermediates in the chemical
and Parnas pathway of glycolysis and fermentation.
1937 Krebs Discovered citric acid cycle.
1940 Lipmann Role of ATP in biological systems.
1940 Beadle and Tatum Deduced one gene-one enzyme relationship.

1944 Avery, MacLeod and Demonstrated that bacterial transformation was caused by
McCarty DNA.
1948 Calvin and Benson Discovered that phosphoglyceric acid is an early
intermediate in photosynthetic C02 fixation.
1950 Pauling and Corey Proposed the a-helix structure for keratins.
1950-1953 Char gaff Discovered the base composition of DNA.
1953 Sanger and Determined the complete amino acid sequence of insulin.
Thompson
1953 Watson and Crick Proposed the double-helical model for DNA structure.

1954 Amon and Discovered photosynthetic phosphorylation.

Colleagues
1956 Komberg Discovered DNA polymerase.
1958 Meselson and Stahl Confirmed the Watson-Crick model of semi conservative
replication of DNA.

1960 Hamilton and Daniel Restriction endonucleases.

Nathans
1961 Jacob & Monod Proposed the operon hypothesis and postulated the
function of messenger RNA.
1961 Nirenberg and Reported that polyuridylic acid codes for phenylalanine
Matthaei and this opened the way to identification of genetic code.

1961-1965 Nirenberg Khorana Identified the genetic code words for amino acids.
and Ochoa

1969 Arber Restriction endonucleases.

1977 Sanger Determination of DNA sequence.

1980 Snell Development of recombinant DNA research leading to

genetic engineering.

1984 Kary Mullis Polymerase chain reaction.

1997 Wilmut Viable offspring derived from fetal and adult

mammalian cells.
1999 Ingo potrykus Golden rice rich in p-carotene.

Scope of Biochemistry:
Scope of biochemistry in MEDICINE

Biochemistry is a valuable subject in medicine without which there would have been no such
advancement in the field.

 Physiology: Biochemistry helps one understand the biochemical changes and related
physiological alteration in the body.
 Pathology: Based on the symptoms described by the patient, the physician can get a
clue on the biochemical change and the associated disorder. For example, if a patient
complains about stiffness in small joints, then the physician may predict it to be gout
and get confirmed by evaluating uric acid levels in the blood. As uric acid
accumulation in blood results in gout.
 Nutrition deficiency: In the present scenario, many people rely on taking
multivitamin & minerals for better health. The function and role of the vitamin in the
body are described only by biochemistry.
 Hormonal deficiency: There are many disorders due to hormonal imbalance in
especially women and children. The formation, role of hormones in the normal body
function is taught in biochemistry by which the physician can understand the
concerned problem during treatment.

Scope of biochemistry in NURSING

In nursing, the importance of clinical biochemistry is invaluable. When a patient is in the

hospital nurses, need to keep a watch on how his condition is progressing through clinical
biochemistry. That is the treatment for helping him recover from said condition etc. Almost
all the diseases or disorders have some biochemical involvement. So the diagnosis of any
clinical condition is easily possible by biochemical estimations.

1. Kidney function test: For example in kidney disorders, other chemotherapy

treatment, etc. urine test help understand the extent of excretion of drugs
or other metabolites, the change in pH, the color of urine, etc.
2. Blood test: In diabetes, biochemical analytical test for blood glucose level (above
150mg/deciliter) helps one understand the severity of diabetes disorder.  Another
biochemical analysis for ketones bodies in urine also indicates the stage of
diabetes. The appearance of ketone bodies or ketone urea is mostly the last stage
of diabetes.
 3. Liver function tests help understand the type of disease or damage to the liver, the
effect of any medication on the liver, etc.
4. Serum cholesterol test: Evaluation of blood cholesterol level and other
lipoproteins helps to understand the proneness of the patient to cardiovascular
diseases.

Scope of biochemistry in AGRICULTURE

In agriculture, biochemistry plays a valuable role in farming, fishery, poultry, sericulture,

beekeeping, etc.

 Prevent diseases: It helps for prevention, treatment of diseases and also increases the
production or yield.
 Enhance growth: Biochemistry gives an idea of how the use of fertilizers can increase
plant growth, their yield, quality of food, etc.
 Enhance Yield: Some hormones promote growth, while other encourage
flowering, fruit formation, etc. In fisheries, use of substances to promote fish growth,
their reproduction, etc. can be understood.
 Adulteration: Even the composition of food material produced, their alteration or
adulteration for example in honey can be found by biochemical tests. Biochemistry
tests help prevent contamination.
 Biochemical tests for the pesticide residues or other toxic waste in plant, food grain
and soil can be evaluated. Hence during import and export of food grains, a
biochemical check of the toxic residues is done to fix the quality.
 In animal husbandry, the quality of milk can be checked by biochemical tests. It also
helps diagnose any disease condition in animals and birds.
 In fisheries, the water quality is regularly monitored by biochemical tests. Any drastic
change in water chemistry & composition of fishery ponds can lead to the vast death of
fishes and prawns. Hence the tests are done on a regular basis to see salt content
(calcium content), pH, accumulation of waste due to not changing water for long, etc.

Scope of biochemistry in NUTRITION

In nutrition, biochemistry describes the food chemistry. For maintenance of health, optimum

intake of many biochemicals like macro, micronutrients, vitamins, minerals, essential fatty
acids & water is necessary.

1. Food chemistry gives an idea of what we eat, i.e., it’s components like

carbohydrates, proteins, fats, etc. and also the possible physiological alteration due
to their deficiency.
2. The role of nutrients: Due to biochemistry the importance of vitamins, minerals,
essential fatty acids, their contribution to health were known. Hence there is a
 frequent recommendation for inclusion of crucial amino-acids, cod liver oil,
salmon fish oil, etc. by physicians and other health and fitness experts.
3. The nutrients value of food material can also be determined by biochemical tests.
4. The physician can prescribe to limit usage of certain food like excess sugar for
diabetics, excess oil for heart & lung problem prone patients, etc. As these
carbohydrate and fat diets can inhibit the recovery rate from said disorder. This
knowledge is due to their idea of food chemistry and related

Scope of biochemistry in PHARMACY

In a pharmacy, many drugs are stored for regular dispensing.

 Drug Constitution: Biochemistry gives an idea of the constitution of the drug, its

chances of degradation with varying temperature, etc. How modification in
the medicinal chemistry helps improve efficiency, minimize side effects, etc.
 The half-life: This is a test done on biochemical drugs to know how long a drug is
stable when kept at so and so temperature.
 Drug storage: The storage condition required can be estimated by the biochemical
test. For example many enzymes, hormones are stored for dispensing. These get
deteriorated over time due to temperature or oxidation, contamination and also due to
improper storage.
 Drug metabolism: It also gives an idea of how drug molecules are metabolized by
many biochemical reactions in the presence of enzymes. This helps to avoid drugs
which have a poor metabolism or those with excessive side effects from being
prescribed or dispensed to the patient.
 Biochemical tests: These tests help fix the specific half-life or date of expiry of drugs.

Scope of biochemistry in plants

Biochemistry of plants gave way to the breakthrough of how food is synthesized in them and
the reason why they are autotrophs, i.e., not dependent on other living beings for food.
Biochemistry in plants describes

1. Photosynthesis: This describes how carbohydrates are synthesized by use of sunlight,

CO2, and water in the green leaves of plants. It goes on to explain about different complex
enzymes involved in the process to combine the energy of sun within the molecules H2O+
CO2 in the form of carbohydrates.

2. Respiration: By use of above photosynthesis pathway, plants leave out Oxygen while
taking up Carbon dioxide from the air. This air is used to generate energy in a cell like that of
animal cells.
3. Different sugars: Biochemistry defines different types of carbohydrates formed in plants
like trioses (3 carbon sugars, i.e., glyceraldehyde), tetroses (4), pentoses (5), hexoses (6=
glucose), heptuloses (7), etc. Heptuloses are the carbohydrates which go on to form the
nucleic acids, i.e., deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), ribonucleic acid (RNA).

4. Plants secondary metabolites: Biochemistry also describes how the plant products like
gums, tannins, alkaloids, resins, enzymes, phytohormones are formed inside the plants.

5. Other functions: It also describes how plants fruits get ripened, how to plant seed
germinates, the respiration process inside the plant cell, how proteins and amino acids are
formed on rough endoplasmic reticulum and fats are formed on smooth ER.

Future Prospects of Biochemistry:

 With the world evolving day in and day out, there is an intense need to understand the
organisms evolving with it and also the role these organisms have on the environment.
 A biochemist can think of working with fields in medical, agriculture, public health
care, forensic environment etc. Because of the nature of work there is a tremendous
scope of research. 
 One can think of working with both public and private sectors. Companies like
Medical Instrument companies, Biotechnology, Food and Drink industries, Research
Companies and Laboratories, Sales and Marketing Firms, Chemical manufacturing
companies, Health and Beauty Care, etc. are always in constant need of people to
come work with them. 
 Also some companies in the public sector are good employers or biochemists; Drug
Manufacturing Companies, Public Health Entities, Blood Service, Industrial
Laboratories, Cancer research institutes, Research Departments, Educational
Institutes, Environmental Pollution Control, Agriculture and fisheries, Forensic
Science, Hospitals, Public Health Laboratories, Cosmetic Industries, etc. 
 There is also another field where there is always need for experts in the field of
Biochemistry which is the quality control and safety section. Almost all companies in
the field of food, pharmaceuticals, health and beauty care, etc required safety checks,
regulations and quality control.
Some job profiles in the field of Biochemistry:
1. Biotechnologist
2. Research Scientist
3. Clinical Scientist
4. Research Associates
5. Chemist
6. Microbiologist
7. Biomedical Scientist
8. Pharmacologist
9. Laboratory Technician