ASIA PACIFIC COLLEGE OF ADVANCED STUDIES

A.H. Banzon St., Ibayo, City of Balanga, Bataan

MC 2: BIOCHEMISTRY
2nd Semester AY 2023-2024
LECTURE 1: History of Biochemistry

Biochemistry
➢ Biochemistry is the branch of science that explores the chemical processes within and related
to living organisms. Biochemistry focuses on processes happening at a molecular level. It
focuses on what's happening inside our cells, studying components like proteins, lipids and
organelles.

Importance of Biochemistry
➢ Biochemistry makes significant contributions to the fields of cell biology, physiology,
immunology, microbiology, pharmacology, and toxicology, as well as the fields of
inflammation, cell injury, and cancer. These close relationships emphasize that life, as we
know it, depends on biochemical reactions and processes.

SIGNIFICANCE IN NURSING
● Knowing the normal processes that occur within the body will help us to identify the
alterations that can occur during disease conditions so that an effective medical treatment
can be facilitated.
● Biochemistry teaches about homeostasis and electrolyte balance and a nurse should
understand the importance of it in the body.
● The various biochemical tests like blood test, kidney function test, liver function test, lipid
profile, will help the nurse to diagnose diseases and the test results will help in assessing the
needs of the patient to provide effective care.
● Every drug has a biochemical action and this knowledge will help in selecting the appropriate
doses and the duration of treatment a patient requires.

HISTORY OF BIOCHEMISTRY

Robert Boyle
Boyle's Law – the first of the gas laws – relating the pressure of a gas to its volume; he
established that electrical forces are transmitted through a vacuum, but sound is not; and he also
stated that the movement of particles is responsible for heat

Antoine Lavosier
● determined that oxygen was a key substance in combustion, and he gave the element its
name. He developed the modern system of naming chemical substances and has been called
the “father of modern chemistry” for his emphasis on careful experimentation.

Friedrich Wohler
● synthesis of urea, an organic compound, from ammonium cyanate, an inorganic salt, thus
disproving the theory of 'vitalism', that organic substances can only be produced from living
 things.

Pre-1900: The term “biochemistry” (and its German/French equivalent “biochimie”) becomes
synonymous with “physiological chemistry” or the “chemistry of life”. Medical schools start to teach
that these studies are important for understanding human disease.

1904 - The term “Biochemistry” was officially coined by the German chemist Carl Neuber.

1918 -Nobel Prize in Chemistry for Fritz Haber, “for the synthesis of ammonia from its elements”.

1919 - Phoebus Levene, a Russian physician and chemist, first discovered the order of the three major
components of a single nucleotide (phosphate, pentose sugar, and nitrogenous base). He was also the
first to discover the carbohydrate component of RNA (ribose), and carbohydrate component of DNA
(deoxyribose). Years later, Levene finally identified how DNA and RNA molecules are put together [4]

1930s - Krebs discovers urea cycle and then the citric acid cycle. This leads to the award of the Nobel
Prize in Chemistry in 1953 for his discovery of the citric acid cycle, along with Fritz Albert Lipmann,
“for his discovery of coenzyme A and its importance for intermediary metabolism”.

1944 - While working on bacterial samples, Oswald Avery first suggested in 1944 that the genetic
material of the cell was possibly the deoxyribonucleic acid.

1950 - A scientist named Erwin Chargaff began to challenge Levene’s previous conclusions. He noted
that the nucleotide composition of DNA differs among species and does not repeat in the same order,
reaching two major conclusions. Chargaff concluded that almost all DNA, no matter what organism or
tissue type it comes from, still maintains certain properties, even as its composition varies. He
postulated the “Chargaff’s Rule” which says that the amount of cytosine is equal to the amount of
guanine, and the amount of thymine is equal to the amount of adenine.

1958 - The theory was only confirmed after Frederick Sanger discovered the first and complete
protein structure in 1958. The protein that was first identified is insulin.

1961 - After the discovery of the genetic material, the next achieved milestone was the cracking of the
genetic code. It was discovered in 1961 that the genetic code is made up of specific triplets of DNA
bases that encodes for particular amino acids.

1977 - Sixteen years after the discovery of the triplets of the DNA, Fred Sanger had successfully
sequenced the genome of a bacteriophage which contained more than 5000 nucleotides. Not long
after, he was able to sequence the DNA of the human mitochondrial genome which consisted of more
than 16 000 nucleotides [4]In the present time, Biochemistry has promises to the world of science in
development of new path-breaking research and coming times would surely prove these promises to
be fulfilled.The development of new technology such as X-ray diffraction, chromatography,
radioisotopic labelling, electron microscopy and molecular dynamics had paved the way for many
other discoveries in the field of Biochemistry. Such technologies will also further open other new
endeavors in the future.

1978 - Nobel Prize in Chemistry for Peter D. Mitchell, “for his contribution to the understanding of
biological energy transfer through the formulation of the chemiosmotic theory”.

1997 - Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Paul D. Boyer and John E. Walker, “for their elucidation of the
enzymatic mechanism underlying the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP)”; Jens C. Skou, “for
the first discovery of an ion-transporting enzyme, Na+, K+ -ATPase”.

Some other seminal biochemists and biochemistry experiments in these research areas include:
1902: Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Hermann Emil Fischer, “in recognition of the extraordinary services
he has rendered by his work on sugar and purine synthesis”.

1923: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Frederick Grant Banting and John James Rickard
Macleod, “for the discovery of insulin”.

1931: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Otto Heinrich Warburg, “for his discovery of the nature
and mode of action of the respiratory enzyme”.

1958: Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Frederick Sanger, “for his work on the structure of proteins,
especially that of insulin”.

1961: Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Melvin Calvin, “for his research on the carbon dioxide assimilation in
plants”.

1988: Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Johann Deisenhofer, Robert Huber and Hartmut Michel, “for the
determination of the three-dimensional structure of a photosynthetic reaction centre”.

1992: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Edmond H. Fischer and Edwin G. Krebs, “for their
discoveries concerning reversible protein phosphorylation as a biological regulatory mechanism”.

Reference;
https://www.futurelearn.com/info/courses/biochemistry/0/steps/15297
https://www.slideshare.net/priyankagohil10/introduction-to-biochemistry-134287605
https://www.bioexplorer.net/history_of_biology/biochemistry/