Raphael Louis
As the name may suggest, biochemistry is a field of science that broaches the two traditional disciplines of biology and chemistry. If chemistry is the science of matter, then biochemistry is the science of living matter. Practitioners of biochemistry study the biochemical reactions that occur at the molecular level within living organisms. In medical biochemistry, also known as molecular biology, biochemical techniques are applied to human health and disease.
Biochemistry is rapidly expanding, becoming one of the most influential areas of science. Combining the core tenets of biology and chemistry, the field plays a huge role in the development of novel new scientific approaches. But just how important is it to public health? Public health is just one area that has benefited from biochemistry. The discipline has made vital contributions to the fields of including cell biology, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, microbiology, immunology, nutrition, forensic medicine, and toxicology, as well as the fields of inflammation, cell injury, and cancer.
Aside from medicine, biochemical research is also applied in industry, agriculture, and food production. When taking all these applications into consideration, biochemistry is far from a single, monolithic discipline. Ever since Eduard Buchner’s 1897 discovery that a cell-free extract of yeast can ferment sugar, widely considered to be the birth of biochemistry, biochemistry has enjoyed an intimate relationship with medicine and public health, illuminating many aspects of human health and the eradication diseases