Biochemistry was launched by German chemist Carl Alexander Neuberg (father of Biochemistry) in 1903.Biochemistry in broad terms is the study of the chemical composition of the living cell and the biochemical processes that underlie life activities during growth and maintenance. Biochemistry is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, but not limited to, living matter.It broadly deals with the chemistry of life as well as living processes.Every aspects of live-birth,growth,reproduction,mature and death,involves biochemistry. Other wise,Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes.For example,every single second of life is the sum of hundreds of biochemical reactions.Biochemistry ,also called biological chemistry.Now a days biochemistry is the developing and modern subject in Medicine. By controlling information flow through biochemical signaling and the flow of chemical energy through metabolism, biochemical processes give rise to the incredible complexity of life.The discipline of biochemistry serves as a torch light to outline the intricate complexities of biology.Biochemical research has adequately demonstrated that all living things are closely related at the molecular level. Much of biochemistry deals with the structures and functions of cellular components such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids and other bio molecules —although increasingly processes rather than individual molecules are the main focus. Among the enormous number of different bio molecules, many are complex and large molecules called bio polymers,which are composed of similar and smaller repeating subunits . Biochemistry studies the chemical properties of important biological molecules, like proteins, and in particular the chemistry of enzyme-catalyzed reactions. The biochemistry of cell metabolism and the endocrine system has been extensively described in DNA,RNA,protein synthesis,cell membrane signal transduction an transport.In human welfare biochemistry have wonderful impact,and largely promoted mankind and their living styles. Today the main focus of pure biochemistry is in understanding how biological molecules give rise to the processes that occur within living cells which in turn relates greatly to the study and understanding of whole organisms.Biochemistry has be come so successful at clearing living processes that related with life sciences.

History of Biochemistry

Once upon a time it was believed that life and its materials had some essential property or substance distinct from any found in non-living matter, and it was thought that only living beings could produce the molecules of life.In 1828,Friedrich Wöhler published a paper on the synthesis of urea, proving that organic compounds can be created artificially. Eduard Buchner contributed the first demonstration of a complex biochemical process outside of a cell in 1896. The first discovered enzyme was diastase(amylase). During the later part of the nineteenth century famous scientists contributed a great deal to the elucidation of the chemistry of fats, proteins and carbohydrates. At this period some very fundamental aspects of enzymology were under close analysis. Study of nucleic acid is central to the knowledge of life but its fusion with biochemistry started with works of Fredrick Sanger and Har Gobind Khurana. Their experiments involved a slight plain of enzymology and chemistry that few would have thought possible to combine. The scientists were busy removing the steam that was justifying the light of knowledge but they still lacked an insight into the cell. In 1990's research turned to finding the structural details of cell. The field of molecular biochemistry was also progressing at an almost unstoppable speed having expanded its horizons beyond human imagination with the introduction of PCR, creating waves of appreciation from every field of medicine and then coming out of the lab to help establish better therapies for various diseases by introduction of gene therapy. Biochemistry has promises to the world of science in development of new path-breaking research and coming times would surely prove these promises to be fulfilled.

Another is the discovery of the gene and its role in the transfer of information in the cell. . In the 1950s, James D. Watson, Francis Crick, Rosalind Franklin, and Maurice Wilkins were instrumental in solving DNA structure and suggesting its relationship with genetic transfer of information. In 1958, George Beadle and Edward Tatum received the Nobel Prize for work in fungi showing that one gene produces one enzyme. In 1988, Colin Pitchfork was the first person convicted of murder with DNA evidence, which led to growth of forensic science. More recently, Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello received the 2006 Nobel Prize for discovering the role of RNA interference (RNAi), in the silencing of gene expression.

Modern biochemistry developed out of and largely came to replace what in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was called physiological chemistry, which dealt more with extra cellular chemistry, such as the chemistry of digestion and of body fluids.Since then, biochemistry has advanced, especially since the mid-20th century, with the development of new techniques such as chromatography, X-ray diffraction, dual polarisation interferometry, NMR spectroscopy, radioisotopic labeling, electron microscopy and molecular dynamics simulations. These techniques allowed for the discovery and detailed analysis of many molecules and metabolic pathways of the cell, such as glycolysis and the Krebs cycle (TCA cycle).

Starting materials: the chemical elements of life

Around25 of the 94 naturally occurring chemical elements are essential to various kinds of biological life.Some elements on the Earth are not needed to life,while a few commons ones are not used. Most organisms share element needs, but there are a few differences between plants and animals.Animals require sodium, but some plants do not. Plants need boron and silicon, but animals may not. Just six elements—carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, calcium, and phosphorus—make up almost 99% of the mass of a human body.Life on earth depends on the chemical element carbon, which is present in every living thing. Carbon is so important, it forms the basis for two branches of chemistry, organic chemistry and biochemistry.

Biomolecules

The four main classes of molecules in biochemistry are carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. Many biological molecules are polymers: in this terminology, monomers are relatively small micromolecules that are linked together to create large macromolecules, which are known as polymers. When monomers are linked together to synthesize a biological polymer, they undergo a process called dehydration synthesis.

Carbohydrates


Carbohydrates, Monosaccharides, Disaccharides, and Polysaccharides

A molecule of sucrose (glucose + fructose), a disaccharide. Carbohydrates are made from monomers called monosaccharides. Some of these monosaccharides include glucose (C6H12O6), fructose (C6H12O6), and deoxyribose (C5H10O4). When two monosaccharides undergo dehydration synthesis, water is produced, as two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom are lost from the two monosaccharides' hydroxyl group.


Lipids

Lipids, Glycerol,and Fatty acids

A triglyceride with a glycerol molecule on the left and three fatty acids coming off it. Lipids are usually made from one molecule of glycerol combined with other molecules. In triglycerides, the main group of bulk lipids, there is one molecule of glycerol and three fatty acids. Fatty acids are considered the monomer in that case, and may be saturated (no double bonds in the carbon chain) or unsaturated (one or more double bonds in the carbon chain). Lipids, especially phospholipids, are also used in various pharmaceutical products, either as co-solubilisers (e.g. in parenteral infusions) or else as drug carrier components (e.g. in a liposom

e or transfersome).

Proteins

Proteins and Amino Acids

The general structure of an α-amino acid, with the amino group on the left and the carboxyl group on the right. Proteins are very large molecules – macro-biopolymers – made from monomers called amino acids. There are 20 standard amino acids, each containing a carboxyl group, an amino group, and a side chain (known as an "R" group). The "R" group is what makes each amino acid different, and the properties of the side chains greatly influence the overall three-dimensional conformation of a protein. When amino acids combine, they form a special bond called a peptide bond through dehydration synthesis, and become a polypeptide, or protein. To determine if two proteins are related or in other words to decide whether they are homologous or not, scientists use sequence-comparison methods. Methods like Sequence Alignments and Structural Alignments are powerful tools that help scientist identify homologies between related molecules. The relevance of finding homologies among proteins goes beyond forming an evolutionary pattern of protein families. By finding how similar two protein sequences are, we acquire knowledge about their structure and therefore their function

Nucleic acids

Nucleic acid, DNA, RNA, and Nucleotides

The structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the picture shows the monomers being put together. Nucleic acids are the molecules that make up DNA, an extremely important substance which all cellular organisms use to store their genetic information. The most common nucleic acids are deoxyribonucleic acid and ribonucleic acid. Their monomers are called nucleotides. The most common nucleotides are adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine, and uracil. Adenine binds with thymine and uracil; Thymine only binds with adenine; and cytosine and guanine can only bind with each other.

 

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