History of biochemistry

Biochemistry in broad terms is the study of the chemical composition of the living matter and the biochemical processes that underlie life activities during growth and maintenance. This article is an attempt to explore the metamorphosis of biochemistry from a pupa entwined in its own cocoon to a vibrantly colored phenomenon. Studies pertaining to this discipline of science began with Biochemistry interfaces with biology and chemistry even before nineteenth century with studies concerned with the chemical processes that take place within living cells. Modern biochemistry developed out of and largely came to replace what in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was called physiological chemistry, which dealt more with extra cellular chemistry, such as the chemistry of digestion and of body fluids. The name Biochemistry was coined in 1903 by a German chemist named Carl Neuber. However, work in this very living, aspect of chemistry had started much earlier. Claude Bernard is accredited with the Sirehood of Biochemistry. During the later part of the nineteenth century eminent scientists contributed a great deal to the elucidation of the chemistry of fats, proteins and carbohydrates. At this period some very fundamental aspects of enzymology were under close scrutiny. Study of nucleic acid is central to the knowledge of life but its fusion with biochemistry started with works of Fredrick Sanger and Har Gobind Khurana. Their experiments involved a subtle bland of enzymology and chemistry that few would have thought possible to combine. The scientists were busy removing the mist that was mitigating the light of knowledge but they still lacked an insight into the cell. In 1990's research turned to finding the structural details of cell. The field of molecular biochemistry was also progressing at an almost unstoppable speed having expanded its horizons beyond human imagination with the introduction of PCR, creating waves of appreciation from every field of medicine and then coming out of the lab to help establish better therapies for various diseases by introduction of gene therapy. 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.