Level of life
Protein
A chain of amino acids folded into a working shape. Proteins act as enzymes, structures, signals and transporters.
Biochemistry
The chemistry of life: enzymes, energy and metabolism.
Biochemistry is the chemistry of living things: how cells use molecules to get energy, build their parts and speed up reactions.
Biochemists study proteins, enzymes and metabolism: how enzymes speed reactions, how cells make ATP, and how photosynthesis captures energy.
Topics include enzyme kinetics, protein folding and structure, bioenergetics such as chemiosmosis and ATP synthase, and metabolic pathways.
Big questions
- How do enzymes speed up reactions so much?
- How do cells capture and spend energy?
- How does a protein fold into its working shape?
Key ideas
Open any idea in the knowledge graph to see what it connects to, here and in other fields.
Molecule
Amino acids
The building blocks of proteins. There are 20 different amino acids, linked in sequences encoded by genes.
Molecule
Enzyme
A biological catalyst that speeds up a reaction without being used up. Most are proteins, but some RNAs are catalysts too, including the core of the ribosome.
Idea or model
Enzyme kinetics
How reaction speed depends on substrate concentration: it rises and then levels off, as the Michaelis-Menten equation describes.
Process
Protein folding
A protein's amino acid sequence determines the three-dimensional shape it folds into, and that shape lets it work.
Idea or model
Protein structure
Atomic models of proteins, first solved by X-ray crystallography, are shared openly through the Protein Data Bank.
Molecule
ATP
The molecule cells use to carry energy. Most of it is made by ATP synthase, a rotating molecular machine.
Process
Cellular respiration
Breaking down sugars and other fuels, mostly in mitochondria, to make ATP.
Process
Photosynthesis
Using light energy to turn carbon dioxide and water into sugar, releasing oxygen.
Molecule
Rubisco
The enzyme that captures carbon dioxide in photosynthesis, often called the most abundant protein on Earth.
Molecule
Hemoglobin
The oxygen-carrying protein of red blood cells. Its beta chain is encoded by the HBB gene.
Explore it in the labs
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Simulation
Pair bases, follow a real human gene from DNA to protein, make mutations, and predict inheritance with Punnett squares.
- Genetics
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Current research
Search published papers and preprints in Biochemistry, with clear labels for reviews, primary research, clinical trials and preprints.
Search papers in BiochemistrySources & further reading
The explanations on this page are our own summaries of these sources. Follow a link to read the original; if anything here disagrees with it, the original wins. How we choose and check sources.
Biology 2e (opens the original in a new tab)
OpenStax (2018). OpenStax, Rice University.
Free introductory college textbook.
TextbookEducationalLicence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (linked, not reused)
The original Michaelis constant: translation of the 1913 Michaelis-Menten paper (opens the original in a new tab)
Michaelis L, Menten ML, Johnson KA, et al. (2011). Biochemistry 50:8264-8269.
Peer-reviewedTranslationPrinciples that govern the folding of protein chains (opens the original in a new tab)
Anfinsen CB (1973). Science 181:223-230.
Nobel lecture: a protein's sequence determines its folded structure.
Historical paperPrimary researchCoupling of phosphorylation to electron and hydrogen transfer by a chemi-osmotic type of mechanism (opens the original in a new tab)
Mitchell P (1961). Nature 191:144-148.
The chemiosmotic hypothesis for how cells make ATP.
Historical paperTheory or modelProtein (opens the original in a new tab)
National Human Genome Research Institute. Talking Glossary of Genomic and Genetic Terms. National Human Genome Research Institute, NIH.
ReferenceGovernment sourceEducationalAmino Acids (opens the original in a new tab)
National Human Genome Research Institute. Talking Glossary of Genomic and Genetic Terms. National Human Genome Research Institute, NIH.
ReferenceGovernment sourceEducationalThe structural basis of ribosome activity in peptide bond synthesis (opens the original in a new tab)
Nissen P, Hansen J, Ban N, et al. (2000). Science 289:920-930.
Structural evidence that ribosomal RNA, not protein, catalyzes peptide bond formation.
Peer-reviewedPrimary researchThe determination of enzyme dissociation constants (opens the original in a new tab)
Lineweaver H, Burk D (1934). Journal of the American Chemical Society 56:658-666.
Historical paperPrimary researchA three-dimensional model of the myoglobin molecule obtained by x-ray analysis (opens the original in a new tab)
Kendrew JC, Bodo G, Dintzis HM, et al. (1958). Nature 181:662-666.
Historical paperPrimary researchThe Protein Data Bank (opens the original in a new tab)
Berman HM, Westbrook J, Feng Z, et al. (2000). Nucleic Acids Research 28:235-242.
Peer-reviewedPrimary researchRCSB Protein Data Bank (opens the original in a new tab)
RCSB PDB. rcsb.org.
DatabaseResearch instituteThe ATP synthase: a splendid molecular machine (opens the original in a new tab)
Boyer PD (1997). Annual Review of Biochemistry 66:717-749.
Editorially reviewedReview
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Direct observation of the rotation of F1-ATPase (opens the original in a new tab)
Noji H, Yasuda R, Yoshida M, et al. (1997). Nature 386:299-302.
Peer-reviewedPrimary researchThe path of carbon in photosynthesis (opens the original in a new tab)
Bassham JA, Benson AA, Calvin M (1950). Journal of Biological Chemistry 185:781-787.
Historical paperPrimary researchThe global mass and average rate of rubisco (opens the original in a new tab)
Bar-On YM, Milo R (2019). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116:4738-4743.
Estimates about 0.7 gigatonnes of rubisco on Earth, mostly in land plant leaves.
Peer-reviewedPrimary researchHBB gene (opens the original in a new tab)
MedlinePlus Genetics. MedlinePlus Genetics. U.S. National Library of Medicine, NIH.
ReferenceGovernment sourceEducationalUniProtKB P68871: Hemoglobin subunit beta (Homo sapiens) (opens the original in a new tab)
UniProt Consortium. UniProt Knowledgebase. UniProt Consortium (EMBL-EBI, SIB, PIR).
Curated entry noting that beta-globin's initiator methionine is removed (mature chain is residues 2 to 147).
DatabaseResearch instituteLicence: CC BY 4.0