CHAPTER 1:

Biochemistry: What You Need To

Know and Why
Learning Outcomes:
• Define Biochemistry
What is Biochemistry?
• The study of the chemical substances and vital process occurring in
living organism
• Is the chemistry of living organism. Biochemists study the chemical
reactions that occur at the molecular level of organisms.
• Biochemistry allows us to understand how the body works.
• Example: your body breaks down food and makes ATP for energy
through chemistry.
What is Biochemistry?
• The study of the chemical substances and vital process occurring in
living organism
• Is the chemistry of living organism. Biochemists study the chemical
reactions that occur at the molecular level of organisms.
• Biochemistry allows us to understand how the body works.
• Example: your body breaks down food and makes ATP for energy
through chemistry.
1.1 Types of Living Cells
• All living organisms contain cells.

There are two types of Cells: Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes

Prokaryotes are the simplest types of Cell.
• The simplest way to distinguish these two types is that a Prokaryotic
cell contains no well-defined, whereas the opposite is true for a
eukaryotic cell.
Prokaryotes
- Are mostly bacteria. Besides the lack of nucleus, there are few well-
defined structures inside the a prokaryotic cell.
- Three components: A cell wall, an outer membrane, and a plasma
membrane.
Eukaryotes
- Are animals, plants, fungi, protists.
- Three components: A cell wall, an outer membrane, and a plasma
membrane.
 CHAPTER 2:
Dive In: Water Chemistry
How Important is Water?
Fundamentals of Water
• Water is essential to life; in fact, human beings are essentially big
sacks of water.
• Water accounts for 60-95 % of our living cells
• 55 % of the water in the human body is in intracellular fluids.
• The remaining 45 (extracellular) is divided between the following:
• 8 % - Plasma
• 22 % - Interstitial and lymph
• 15 % - Connective tissue, cartilage and bone
• Water is also necessary as a solvent for the multitude of
biochemical reactions that occur in the body:
• Water acts as transport medium across membranes, carrying
substances into and out of cells.
• Water helps maintain the temperature of the body.
• Water acts as a solvent (carrying dissolved chemical) in the
digestive and waste excretion systems.
• Healthy humans have intake/loss of about 2 liters of water per day.
• The intake: 45% from liquids, 40% from food, with the remainder
coming from the oxidation of food.
• The loss: 50% from the urine, and 5% from feces, with the remainder
leaving through evaporation from the skin and lungs.
Physical Properties of water
• The medium in which biological system operate is water, and physical
properties of water influence the biological systems.
Water is Polar molecule
• Polar, water has a tendency to “wet” substances
• It’s also a bent molecule, not linear
• The hydrogen atoms have a partially positive
charge the oxygen atom has partially
negative charge.
• This charge is due to electronegativity
difference between hydrogen and oxygen
Atoms.
Water has strong molecular forces
• Hydrogen bonds in oxygen- and nitrogen-containing molecules are
very important in biochemistry because they influence reactions
between such molecules and structures of these biological molecules.
Water has high specific heat
• Specific heat is the amount of heat required to change the
temperature of a gram of water to 1° Celsius.
• A high specific heat means it isn’t easy to change the temperature of
water. Water also has a high heat of vaporization.
References
• https://www.mcgill.ca/biochemistry/about-
us/information/biochemistry#:~:text=Biochemistry%20is%20the%20a
pplication%20of,the%20chemistry%20of%20living%20systems.
• https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/healthy_eating/water-and-
healthier-
drinks.html#:~:text=Getting%20enough%20water%20every%20day,to
%20constipation%20and%20kidney%20stones.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyC5r2mB4d4