News tagged with biochemistry

Researchers prepare cheap quantum dot solar paint

(PhysOrg.com) -- It typically takes a day or two to prepare quantum dot solar cells in the conventional multifilm architecture. Now a team of researchers is reducing the preparation time of quantum dot solar ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Dec 16, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (23) | comments 15 | with audio podcast feature

Scientists create super-strong collagen

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers has created the strongest form of collagen known to science, a stable alternative to human collagen that could one day be used to treat arthritis and ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Jan 12, 2010 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (9) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Image pinpoints all 5 million atoms in viral coat

(PhysOrg.com) -- If a picture is worth a thousand words, then Rice University's precise new image of a virus' protective coat is seriously undervalued. More than three years in the making, the image contains ...

Chemistry /

created Feb 16, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (15) | comments 2

A new gene silencing platform -- silence is golden

A team of researchers led by Rutgers' Samuel Gunderson has developed a novel gene silencing platform with very significant improvements over existing RNAi approaches. This may enable the development and discovery of a new ...

Biology /

created Feb 08, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 1

Embryonic stem cells shift metabolism in cancer-like way upon implanting in uterus

Shortly after a mouse embryo starts to form, some of its stem cells undergo a dramatic metabolic shift to enter the next stage of development, Seattle researchers report today. These stem cells start using ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Mar 23, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Study adds timing capability to living cell sensors

(PhysOrg.com) -- Individual cells modified to act as sensors using fluorescence are already useful tools in biochemistry, but now they can add good timing to their resumé, thanks in part to expertise ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Feb 08, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Nanorod-assembled order affects diffusion rate and direction

Some of the recent advancements in nanotechnology depend critically on how nanoparticles move and diffuse on a surface or in a fluid under non-ideal to extreme conditions. Georgia Tech has a team of researchers ...

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created Feb 06, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researchers discover the processes leading to acute myeloid leukemia

Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have discovered a molecular pathway that may explain how a particularly deadly form of cancer develops. The discovery may lead to new cancer therapies that reprogram cells instead ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Jan 30, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

How the fly flies: Scientists discover gene switch responsible for flight muscle formation

Flies are real flight artists, although they only have small wings compared to their body size. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich, Germany, recently identified ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Nov 17, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Live from the scene: Biochemistry in action

Researchers can now watch molecules move in living cells, literally millisecond by millisecond, thanks to a new microscope developed by scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Aug 08, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Stem cell 'memory' can boost insulin levels

Stem cells from early embryos can be coaxed into becoming a diverse array of specialized cells to revive and repair different areas of the body. Therapies based on these stem cells have long been contemplated for the treatment ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jul 13, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Bacterial roundabouts determine cell shape

Almost all bacteria owe their structure to an outer cell wall that interacts closely with the supporting MreB protein inside the cell. As scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry and at the ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jun 03, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New chemistry technology promises more effective prescription drug therapies

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the University of Toronto and Stanford and Columbia Universities have developed a way to measure the action and function of candidate prescription drugs on human cells, including the response ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created May 09, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

When cells divide

For two independent daughter cells to emerge from a cell division, the membrane of the dividing cell must be severed. In the latest issue of Science, a team led by Daniel Gerlich, Professor at the Institute of Bio ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Mar 28, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Research reveals real-time working of the spliceosome

Making a movie at the molecular level? A new method of imaging molecule-sized machines as they do the complex work of cutting and pasting genetic information inside the nucleus is the subject of a just-published paper in ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Mar 10, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Biochemistry

Biochemistry is the study of the chemical processes in living organisms. It deals with the structure and function of cellular components such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids and other biomolecules.

Although there are a vast number of different biomolecules many are complex and large molecules (called polymers) that are composed of similar repeating subunits (called monomers). Each class of polymeric biomolecule has a different set of subunit types. For example, a protein is a polymer whose subunits are selected from a set of 20 or more amino acids. Biochemistry studies the chemical properties of important biological molecules, like proteins, in particular the chemistry of enzyme-catalyzed reactions.

The biochemistry of cell metabolism and the endocrine system has been extensively described. Other areas of biochemistry include the genetic code (DNA, RNA), protein synthesis, cell membrane transport, and signal transduction.

Since all known life forms that are still alive today are descended from the same common ancestor, they have generally similar biochemistries. It is unknown whether alternative biochemistries are possible or practical.

For more information about Biochemistry, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Related topics: cells , cancer , protein