Biochemistry

{{Biology}}
{{Chemistry}}
'''Biochemistry''' is the branch of [[science]] concerned with the chemistry of biological processes. It attempts to utilize the tools and concepts of [[chemistry]], particularly organic and physical chemistry, for elucidation of living systems. The science has been variously referred to as physiological chemistry and as biological chemistry.

==Scope of the biochemist==
Biochemists study such things as the structures and physical properties of biological [[molecule]]s, including the [[protein]]s, the carbohydrates, the lipids, and the [[DNA|nucleic acid]]s; the mechanisms of enzyme action; the chemical regulation of [[metabolism]]; the molecular basis of [[genetics|genetic expression]]; the chemistry of [[vitamin]]s; chemoluminescence; biological [[oxygen|oxidation]]; and energy utilization in the [[cell]]. The study of the chemistry of the [[vaccination|immune response]] offers the possibility of treatment and cure for such diseases as [[AIDS]] and lupus.

==Biochemistry and other sciences==
[[Molecular biology]], a term first used in 1950, is used to describe the area of research, closely related to and often overlapping biochemistry, conducted by biologists whose approach to and interest in [[biology]] are principally at the molecular level of organization. The related field of biophysics brings to biology the techniques and attitudes of the [[physics|physicist]]. Cell biology is concerned with the organization and functioning of the individual [[cell]] and depends greatly on biochemical techniques. As the study of life forms demonstrated similar or even identical processes occurring in widely divergent [[species]], it has taken the biochemist to unravel the underlying chemical basis for these phenomena.

==Timeline of biochemistry discoveries==
The chief discoveries of biochemistry started taking place in the early 1800s.

{| class="wikitable" cellpadding="3"
|-
! Date
! Event

|- valign="TOP"
| 1828
|  Friedrich Wöhler published a paper about the synthesis of urea, proving that organic compounds can be created artificially.
|- valign="TOP"
| 1833
|  Anselme Payen made the discovery of the first enzyme, diastase (today called amylase).
|- valign="TOP"
| 1896
|  Eduard Buchner contributed the first demonstration of a complex biochemical process outside of a cell: alcoholic fermentation in cell extracts of yeast.
|- valign="TOP"
| 1953
| James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the double helical structure of the DNA molecule.
|- valign="TOP"
| 1953
| Hans Adolf Krebs discovers the biochemical steps of the Krebs cycle in carbohydrate metabolism.
|- valign="TOP"
| 1957
| Daniel Bovet receives the Nobel Prize for the development of antihistamines.
|- valign="TOP"
| 1959
| Severo Ochoa and Arthur Kornberg receive the Nobel Prize for discoveries on the synthesis of DNA and RNA.
|- valign="TOP"
| 1970
| Hamilton Smith reports the discovery of the first restriction enzyme.  
|- valign="TOP"
| 1971
| Theodor Diener demonstrates the fundamental differences between viroids and viruses.  
|- valign="TOP"
| 1975
| Cesar Milsein, Georges Kohler, and Niels Kai Jerne develop the technique for making monoclonal antibodies. 
|- valign="TOP"
| 1977
| Rosalyn S. Yalow, R.C.I. Guillemin and A.V. Schally receive the Nobel Prize for developing the radioimmunossay (RIA) techniques and using RIA to analyze peptide hormones in the brain.
|- valign="TOP"
| 1984
| Cesar Milstein, Georges J.F. Koehler and Niels Jerne receive the Nobel Prize for developing a method for the production of large quantities of monoclonal antibodies. 
|- valign="TOP"
| 1985
| Joseph L. Goldstein receives the Nobel Prize together with Michael Stuart Brown for their work in elucidating the function of the LDL receptor.
|- valign="TOP"
| 1995
| The Food and Drug Administration approves the first protease inhibitor, a major weapon against the progression of AIDS. 
|- valign="TOP"
| 1997
| The first complete nucleotide sequence of all of the chromosomes of a eukaryote (yeast) is reported.
|}

==See also==
*[[Non-materialist neuroscience]]

==Further reading==
*L. Stryer, Biochemistry (3d ed. 1988); C. K. Mathews and K. E. van Holde, ''Biochemistry'' (1990); G. Zubay, ''Biochemistry'' (3d ed. 1993).

==External links==
*[http://www.biochemweb.org BioChemWeb.org]

[[category:biochemistry]]
[[category:chemistry]]
[[category:biology]]
[[category:science]]

Categories: biochemistry, chemistry, biology, science