Biochemistry is the branch of science that investigates the chemical substances, reactions, and molecular mechanisms underlying biological processes in living organisms. It focuses on the structure, function, and interactions of biomolecules such as proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, carbohydrates, and metabolites, and how these components are organized into pathways and networks that govern metabolism, signal transduction, gene expression, and cellular homeostasis. Biochemistry integrates principles from chemistry, molecular biology, and physics, employing quantitative and structural approaches to elucidate how molecular events translate into cellular and organismal phenotypes, and to inform fields such as molecular medicine, biotechnology, and systems biology.
A bioactive compound produced by the microorganism Bacillus licheniformis, found on Deception Island in Antarctica, has properties that qualify it for use in producing food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and biodegradable materials.
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 14, 2025
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36
Scientists know some of the broad strokes for how life emerged from primordial Earth, but digging into the processes that allowed for the emergence of an oxygenated atmosphere, processes like photosynthesis, the development ...
Evolution
Oct 13, 2025
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30
Scientists digging through data collected by the Cassini spacecraft have found new complex organic molecules spewing from Saturn's moon Enceladus. This is a clear sign that complex chemical reactions are taking place within ...
Astrobiology
Oct 1, 2025
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125
Abiotic organic synthesis during geological processes has long drawn scientific interest, as it is believed to have laid both the material and energetic groundwork for the emergence of early life on Earth.
Earth Sciences
Sep 4, 2025
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24
Organic chemistry, the chemistry of carbon compounds, is the basis of all life on Earth. However, metals also play a key role in many biochemical processes. When it comes to "marrying" large, heavy metal atoms with light ...
Nanophysics
Aug 22, 2025
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104
New NASA research has found that Ceres may have had a lasting source of chemical energy: the right types of molecules needed to fuel some microbial metabolisms. Although there is no evidence that microorganisms ever existed ...
Astrobiology
Aug 20, 2025
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109
A collaborative team from the Exploratory Research Center on Life and Living Systems (ExCELLS), National Institutes of Natural Sciences, and affiliated institutions has elucidated how glycosylation dynamically modulates the ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Aug 6, 2025
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16
The evolutionary success of our species may have hinged on minute changes to our brain biochemistry after we diverged from the lineage leading to Neanderthals and Denisovans about half a million years ago.
Evolution
Aug 4, 2025
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230
Prebiotic molecules central to life's earliest metabolic processes—chemical reactions in cells that change food into energy—may have been born in deep space long before Earth existed, according to new research from the University ...
Astrobiology
Apr 22, 2025
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119
Extraterrestrial and artificial life have long captivated the human mind. Knowing only the building blocks of our own biosphere, can we predict how life may exist on other planets? What factors will rein in the Frankensteinian ...
Astrobiology
Dec 24, 2024
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144
