What is biochemistry?
Biochemistry is the branch of science that explores the chemical processes within and related to living organisms. It is a laboratory based science that brings together biology and chemistry. By using chemical knowledge and techniques, biochemists can understand and solve biological problems.
Biochemistry focuses on processes happening at a molecular level. It focuses on what’s happening inside our cells, studying components like proteins, lipids and organelles. It also looks at how cells communicate with each other, for example during growth or fighting illness. Biochemists need to understand how the structure of a molecule relates to its function, allowing them to predict how molecules will interact.
Biochemistry covers a range of scientific disciplines, including genetics, microbiology, forensics, plant science and medicine. Because of its breadth, biochemistry is very important and advances in this field of science over the past 100 years have been staggering. It’s a very exciting time to be part of this fascinating area of study.
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 of any disease is studied through biochemical changes.
• 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.
