biokemia

Biokemia is the study of chemical processes that underlie living organisms. In many languages it corresponds to what English speakers call biochemistry. The field examines the structure and function of biomolecules — proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, lipids, and small metabolites — and how these components interact to sustain life.

A core focus is metabolism, including the breakdown of nutrients (catabolism) and the synthesis of cellular components (anabolism). Bioenergetics covers ATP production, redox chemistry, the mitochondrion (in eukaryotes) and related energy transduction processes, as well as photosynthesis in plants and some microbes.

Biokemia also studies the organization of the cellular machinery that governs gene expression, protein folding, enzyme catalysis, membrane transport, and signal transduction. It emphasizes the dynamic regulation of pathways in response to environmental changes and developmental cues.

Methods include analytical chemistry, molecular biology, and structural biology. Techniques such as chromatography, mass spectrometry, spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography, NMR, and cryo-electron microscopy are used to characterize molecules and activities. Computational approaches and systems biology link data into models.

Applications span medicine, pharmacology, agriculture, and biotechnology. Biokemia informs understanding of diseases, guides drug design and diagnostics, improves nutrition, and enables industrial bioprocesses and synthetic biology.

Historically, biokemia emerged from chemistry and physiology in the 19th and 20th centuries, with pioneers who linked chemical structure to biological function. Today it is taught as a central life science and collaborates with genetics, physics, and computer science.