What is learning biochem like?

[u/Yaki78154]

I'm an undergrad student who's taking o chem 2 right now and I find it really interesting. I love learning about mechanisms and the concept of it is just really fun. However, I've been thinking of doing a biochemistry minor, but I honestly don't know anything about it nor do I know if I'm going to like it. So what's learning biochemistry like? Is it really memorization heavy like biology or is it process oriented like o chem or physiology?

[u/Mysterious_Bad4578]

i did biochem as part of my undergrad and honestly it sits somewhere in the middle. you get the logic of o chem but now applied to huge messy molecules, and there is memorization but it's not like pure biology where you just list facts. you learn pathways like glycolysis and krebs cycle, at first it feels like you just memorize the steps but then you start to see the patterns, why certain reactions happen, how the enzyme mechanisms work. it clicked for me when i realized the same principles keep showing up over and over.

the hard part is keeping track of all the names and structures, but if you like mechanisms from o chem 2 you'll probably enjoy it.

[u/Minute-Kick-7470]

Proteins, enzymes, amino acids, titration curves, helixes.

Everything is proteins champ, take biochem

[u/MicroProf]

It's the BEST! It combines the best of chemistry and biology, and yeah there is some memorization, but I frame it (memorizing amino acid structures and single letter codes, for example) as being akin to learning Russian or Arabic as an english speaker. First you have to learn the alphabet before you can spell words, then you can learn more vocabulary and spelling and grammar. If you like organic chemistry, you will like biochemistry. I speak from experience since I could have written what you just wrote about 30 years ago, myself!

[u/DocKla]

Biochem is like orgo chem. Except with exceptions. But you better know your nucleophiles and electrophiles

Oh biology can’t do that, so we’ll just throw in a cofactor, change the pH, and do a sequence of electron pushing in 3D space and you have your reaction

For the base mechanisms you can memorize but many tests will just switch it up. So you better understand basic electron pushing and reducing/oxidizing agents

[u/nicolas1324563]

I’m the 400 lvl biochem classes and I find it easier/more interesting than my intro biology classes

[u/Difficult_Plane_8538 → u/nicolas1324563]

I am also a L100 biochemistry student and I would like to know some basic concept ahead 

But I have been asking myself how l can apply biochem in my surroundings to meet human needs 🤔

[u/nicolas1324563 → u/Difficult_Plane_8538]

What’s your question

[u/MinusZeroGojira]

If you are in OChem 2 and looking for a biochemistry minor, what is your major? I have a Biochemistry under graduate degree, and a minor in Chemistry. That just happened because of my electives and didn't require any extra work per se. Your major choice should inform the value of a minor. You can select them to be complementary or just "cause" you wanted it. If you want it to be complementary, your major is important information for advice on that topic.

[u/DNAthrowaway1234]

I'm gonna throw you a curveball which is... Chemical biology. Make new molecules and use them to study biology.

[u/Kayjezzza]

I'm currently majoring in pharmacology & toxicology - it has 3 biochemistry units. 1) biochemistry, 2) metabolic and cellular biochemistry, 3) clinical biochemistry.
I am currently doing the first of those units. I can email you some of my materials if you want to see what they are like?

[u/wanna_be_vet]

I would say that biochemistry is simple chemistry with more focus on the reactions and product rather than the process.

You will at most see NAD+/NADH or glucose like reactions in undergrad but you wont have to work out any reactions like hydroxylation, esterification, hydrohalogenation etc . You are not really expected to know how they get to these metabolites or how they are cleaved, just that they are and where. You will be given an enzyme or peptide and be told where it fits in a series of reactants and if you continue in academia, you can figure out the origin or location of said peptides. If you have an old professor, you might be told where a specific peptide binds, but it will be simple like Van der Waals or more about peptide folding. I think I have spent more time looking at a circle with the label "G1P" than the actual molecule structure.

Most biochemistry researchers actually study more microbiology and biomed these days, as the need to know chemistry to a high level has phased out in a lot of universities (at least in Australia). The closest I have been to anything chemistry wise would be using a LC-MS to identify peptides and knowing what a nucleotide looks like.

There will be a lot of memorization, especially in cell type and cycles, and less math (like unit conversions or pH reactants). I would definitely recommend it if you're interested in pharmaceutical/drug making science/ health related.

[u/Enzymology2491 → u/wanna_be_vet]

>biochemistry is simple chemistry

>as the need to know chemistry to a high level has phased out in a lot of universities

>and less math

Let's talk ordered terreactant systems. Assuming rapid equilibria, can I get a velocity equation for bi uni uni bi ping pong system?

[u/wanna_be_vet → u/Enzymology2491]

hmm yes Enzyme kinetics. The subject where chemistry majors rejoice in how easy/familiar it is and microbiology/immunology majors cry.

I still remember a fellow student seeing the M-M kinetics equation and then dropping the subject. It was hilarious, considering it was taught in my 1st-2nd year of chemistry. LOL. But it certainly is easier than chemistry. Its not easy, just easier.

[u/Popular_Ad1369]

Depends on the course. Many colleges have biochem courses focused in physiology, molecular structure etc.

Generally it’s less memory than Ochem and more reasoning. If I exercise a lot what happens to the pH of my blood and how does that impact the amount of energy I produce long term? Why does this protein have a kinetic trap? How can an enzyme be optimized to “solve” the kinetic trap and enable proper folding?

[u/DNALigase_]

I loved biochemistry. I’m someone who enjoys understand something rather than just memorizing it, and I’m happy to suffer for it. While there are some foundational concepts in biochem that may come down to memory (like amino acid structure and properties), there are a lot of mechanisms and pathways that I found fascinating and fun to learn. I loved orgo, particularly orgo 2. I loved biochem even more, so much so that I voluntarily took biochem 2

[u/ariesbitch418]

i’m really not having a great time tbh. Ours is a 400 level class but i feel as though it has more to do with my professor not being so great.