biochemi

Biochemi is an informal shorthand for biochemistry, the branch of science that studies the chemical processes that underlie living organisms. It focuses on the molecules of life—proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, lipids, and small metabolites—and how their structures and interactions govern biological function. The field seeks to understand how cells extract and convert energy, build and modify biomolecules, and regulate complex pathways that sustain life.

Key concepts include the structure and catalysis of enzymes, metabolism and energy transfer, the genetic information flow from DNA to RNA to protein (the central dogma), signaling and regulation, and the chemistry of membranes and transport. Biochemi integrates chemistry with biology to explain phenomena from enzyme kinetics to gene expression and cell signaling.

Techniques common in biochemistry include spectroscopy, chromatography, mass spectrometry, X-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance, and increasingly cryo-electron microscopy and computational modeling. Together these methods reveal molecular structure, dynamics, and interactions.

Subfields include enzymology, structural biochemistry, metabolic biochemistry, molecular biochemistry, clinical biochemistry, and biochemical nutrition. Applications span medicine, pharmacology, biotechnology, diagnostics, and industrial bioprocessing. Biochemi underpins drug design, understanding metabolic disorders, and the engineering of microbes for production of chemicals and fuels.

Historically, biochemistry emerged in the 19th and 20th centuries through the work of chemists and biologists who linked chemical principles to living systems. Today it remains a foundational, interdisciplinary science taught in universities and pursued across research, healthcare, and industry.