To me, studying biochemistry is using the language of chemistry to understand the machine that is a living system. In my opinion, it’s the best strategy to attack questions of life, since you’re starting from the base and slowly building up information, and as information increases at the smallest level you can use that to understand much larger scale systems within a living system because ultimately, we’re all just really big machines that utilize chemistry to exist and create life. It’s how understanding nucleophilic acyl substitution can be used to understand a bunch of different mechanisms in a variety of pathways. When I think about what biochemistry is, I think about a quote I saw from a credible source called TikTok, which was “chemistry has become a language to understand life, and the best biologists are fluent in the language of chemistry.” That quote from the credible source really makes me think about how much a biochemist relies on chemistry to understand their field. Makes me think like I am that person that truly understands the mechanism to life. Emphasis on the “think” though; I still have a lot to learn.
My story with biochemistry is interesting. I had no idea what the discipline was, but I approached it with “I liked biology and chemistry in high school so I’ll do both” and it honestly worked out perfectly. I quickly found that I really preferred chemistry over biology and that I work better on a smaller scale of thinking. My football friends always tell me that I like molecules and ask how the molecules were today when I showed up late to practice which I always found funny. That aside, so far in advanced biochemistry I’ve enjoyed the amount of organic that’s present as it was my favorite subdiscipline of chemistry; which I found out because of biochemistry. I also enjoy the work that comes with biochemistry. As weird as it sounds I like locking myself in a room, being alone, listening to music, and studying material. Writing on chalkboards is my primary way of studying and drawing out mechanisms on the chalkboard is actually really relaxing. My experience studying biochemistry has become more enjoyable the more I take classes in the major. Like I couldn’t stand gen chem and the intro bios but once I broke away from those classes my love for biochemistry really grew. Not to mention research. Dr. C really showed me how amazing proteins are, as a lot of the labs I’m interested in involve either synthesis or protein manipulation. I’ve found that my ideal lab uses chemistry to manipulate proteins with an overarching medical goal in mind. Overall, the point of my tangents was to reach the conclusion that I kinda jumped into biochemistry not knowing what it really was and it turned out to be a better fit for me than I could’ve imagined.
Finally, biochemistry is the perfect subject to help prepare me for the professional world. I want to work for big pharma as some sort of synthetic chemistry. I’ve found that biosynthesis is an up and coming technique that really peaks my interest and that’s right in the pocket of biochemistry. A few labs I’m interested in working with even utilize this technique. Every chemistry lab I want to work in is also focused on rational drug design or targeting specific diseases. So, although I might be applying to chemistry PhD programs, I’m going to be well within a biological system. These interests wouldn’t have been found without pursuing biochemistry as a discipline either. But yeah. That’s pretty much all I had to say.
