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Application of WST-8 based colorimetric NAD(P)H detection for quantitative dehydrogenase assays

The reduction of tetrazolium salts by NAD(P)H to formazan product has been widely used to determine the metabolic activity of cells, and as an indicator of cell viability. However, the application of a WST-8 b...

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Association of TM6SF2 rs58542926 gene polymorphism with the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and colorectal adenoma in Chinese Han population

Genetic factors affect the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and colorectal adenoma (CRA) importantly. Transmembrane protein 6 superfamily member 2 (TM6SF2) rs58542926 is a significant genetic ...

The active role of the transcription factor Sp1 in NFATc2-mediated gene regulation in pancreatic cancer

Adenocarcinoma of the pancreas is one of the most aggressive tumor diseases affecting the human body. The oncogenic potential of pancreatic cancer is mainly characterized by extremely rapid growth triggered by...

Role of the highly conserved G68 residue in the yeast phosphorelay protein Ypd1: implications for interactions between histidine phosphotransfer (HPt) and response regulator proteins

Many bacteria and certain eukaryotes utilize multi-step His-to-Asp phosphorelays for adaptive responses to their extracellular environments. Histidine phosphotransfer (HPt) proteins function as key components ...

Up-regulation of DcR3 in microbial toxins-stimulated HUVECs involves NF-κB signalling

Sepsis is a severe condition characterised by the body’s systemic inflammatory response to infection. The specific sepsis-related biomarkers should be used in clinical diagnosis, therapeutic response monitorin...

Soluble expression of recombinant midgut zymogen (native propeptide) proteases from the Aedes aegypti Mosquito Utilizing E. coli as a host

Studying proteins and enzymes involved in important biological processes in the Aedes aegypti mosquito is limited by the quantity that can be directly isolated from the mosquito. Adding to this difficulty, digest...

Identification of the major diacylglycerol acyltransferase mRNA in mouse adipocytes and macrophages

Triacylglycerols (TAGs) are the major form of energy storage in eukaryotes. Diacylglycerol acyltransferases (DGATs) catalyze the final and rate-limiting step of TAG biosynthesis. Mammalian DGATs are classified...

Purification and characterization of cysteine protease from miswak Salvadora persica

Generally, proteases in medicinal plants had different therapeutic effects such as anti-inflammatory effect; modulate the immune response and inhibitory effect toward tumor growth. In this study, protease was ...

Effect of IAPP on the proteome of cultured Rin-5F cells

Islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) or amylin deposits can be found in the islets of type 2 diabetes patients. The peptide is suggested to be involved in the etiology of the disease through formation of amyloid d...

Structure and function of a lignostilbene-α,β-dioxygenase orthologue from Pseudomonas brassicacearum

Stilbene cleaving oxygenases (SCOs), also known as lignostilbene-α,β-dioxygenases (LSDs) mediate the oxidative cleavage of the olefinic double bonds of lignin-derived intermediate phenolic stilbenes, yielding ...

Simple spectrophotometric assay for measuring catalase activity in biological tissues

The details of a precise, accurate, and sensitive spectrophotometric method for measuring catalase activity are presented here. The assay was established for biological samples and depends on the rapid formati...

Establishment of a detection assay for DNA endonuclease activity and its application in the screening and prognosis of malignant lymphoma

Endonucleases play critical roles in maintaining genomic stability and regulating cell growth. The purpose of this study was to evaluate detection of endonuclease activity as an indicator in the early diagnosi...

Isolation of quercetin and mandelic acid from Aesculus indica fruit and their biological activities

In this study Aesculus indica fruit was subjected to isolation of phytochemicals. Two antioxidants quercetin and Mandelic acid were isolated in pure state. The free radical scavenging and acetyl choline esterase ...

Purification and characterization of α-amylase from Trichoderma pseudokoningii

Previous studies have demonstrated that members of Trichoderma are able to generate appreciable amount of extracellular amylase and glucoamylase on soluble potato starch. In this study the α-amylase was purified ...

Identification and characterization of smallest pore-forming protein in the cell wall of pathogenic Corynebacterium urealyticum DSM 7109

Corynebacterium urealyticum , a pathogenic, multidrug resistant member of the mycolata, is known as causative agent of urinary tract infections although it is a bacterium of the skin flora. This pathogenic bacteri...

Characterization of association of human mitochondrial lysyl-tRNA synthetase with HIV-1 Pol and tRNA 3 Lys

An important step in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) replication is the packaging of tRNA 3 Lys from the host cell, which plays the role of primer RNA in the process of initiation of reverse transcripti...

Feruloyl esterase immobilization in mesoporous silica particles and characterization in hydrolysis and transesterification

Enzymes display high reactivity and selectivity under natural conditions, but may suffer from decreased efficiency in industrial applications. A strategy to address this limitation is to immobilize the enzyme....

Characterization of sulfhydryl oxidase from Aspergillus tubingensis

Despite of the presence of sulfhydryl oxidases (SOXs) in the secretomes of industrially relevant organisms and their many potential applications, only few of these enzymes have been biochemically characterized...

Glycyl-alanyl-histidine protects PC12 cells against hydrogen peroxide toxicity

Peptides with cytoprotective functions, including antioxidants and anti-infectives, could be useful therapeutics. Carnosine, β-alanine-histidine, is a dipeptide with anti-oxidant properties. Tripeptides of Ala...

Antiproliferative factor (APF) binds specifically to sites within the cytoskeleton-associated protein 4 (CKAP4) extracellular domain

Antiproliferative factor (APF) is a sialoglycopeptide elevated in the urine of patients with interstitial cystitis—a chronic, painful bladder disease. APF inhibits the proliferation of normal bladder epithelia...

Use of a special Brazilian red-light emitting railroad worm Luciferase in bioassays of NEK7 protein Kinase and Creatine Kinase

Luciferases, enzymes that catalyze bioluminescent reactions in different organisms, have been extensively used for bioanalytical purposes. The most well studied bioluminescent system is that of firefly and oth...

Dacin, one metalloproteinase from Deinagkistrodon acutus venom inhibiting contraction of mouse ileum muscle

Mice were bitten by five-pace vipers ( Deinagkistrodon acutus ), and then envenomed. It was well-known that the snake venom mainly disturbed the blood homeostasis of the envenomed victims. Ocassionally, we found th...

Serendipitous discovery of light-induced ( In Situ ) formation of an Azo-bridged dimeric sulfonated naphthol as a potent PTP1B inhibitor

Protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) like dual specificity phosphatase 5 (DUSP5) and protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) are drug targets for diseases that include cancer, diabetes, and vascular disorders ...

Chemical and structural characterization of α-N-acetylgalactosaminidase I and II from starfish, asterina amurensis

The marine invertebrate starfish was found to contain a novel α-N-acetylgalactosaminidase, α-GalNAcase II, which catalyzes removal of terminal α-N-acetylgalactosamine (α-GalNAc), in addition to a typical α-N-a...

Structural insight into the inactivation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis non-classical transpeptidase Ldt Mt2 by biapenem and tebipenem

The carbapenem subclass of β-lactams is among the most potent antibiotics available today. Emerging evidence shows that, unlike other subclasses of β-lactams, carbapenems bind to and inhibit non-classical tran...

Structural similarities and functional differences clarify evolutionary relationships between tRNA healing enzymes and the myelin enzyme CNPase

Eukaryotic tRNA splicing is an essential process in the transformation of a primary tRNA transcript into a mature functional tRNA molecule. 5′-phosphate ligation involves two steps: a healing reaction catalyze...

CrMAPK3 regulates the expression of iron-deficiency-responsive genes in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

Under iron-deficient conditions, Chlamydomonas exhibits high affinity for iron absorption. Nevertheless, the response, transmission, and regulation of downstream gene expression in algae cells have not to be inve...

Binding of smoothelin-like 1 to tropomyosin and calmodulin is mutually exclusive and regulated by phosphorylation

The smoothelin-like 1 protein (SMTNL1) can associate with tropomyosin (Tpm) and calmodulin (CaM), two proteins essential to the smooth muscle contractile process. SMTNL1 is phosphorylated at Ser301 by protein ...

Increased enzymatic hydrolysis of sugarcane bagasse by a novel glucose- and xylose-stimulated β-glucosidase from Anoxybacillus flavithermus subsp. yunnanensis E13 T

β-Glucosidase is claimed as a key enzyme in cellulose hydrolysis. The cellulosic fibers are usually entrapped with hemicelluloses containing xylose. So there is ongoing interest in searching for glucose- and x...

Interactions of histatin-3 and histatin-5 with actin

Histatins are histidine rich polypeptides produced in the parotid and submandibular gland and secreted into the saliva. Histatin-3 and −5 are the most important polycationic histatins. They possess antimicrobi...

Systematic substitutions at BLIP position 50 result in changes in binding specificity for class A β-lactamases

The production of β-lactamases by bacteria is the most common mechanism of resistance to the widely prescribed β-lactam antibiotics. β-lactamase inhibitory protein (BLIP) competitively inhibits class A β-lacta...

Copper chelation and interleukin-6 proinflammatory cytokine effects on expression of different proteins involved in iron metabolism in HepG2 cell line

In vertebrates, there is an intimate relationship between copper and iron homeostasis. Copper deficiency, which leads to a defect in ceruloplasmin enzymatic activity, has a strong effect on iron homeostasis re...

Knockdown of GGCT inhibits cell proliferation and induces late apoptosis in human gastric cancer

Gamma glutamylcyclotransferase (GGCT) has been proved to be involved in various cancers, but the biological function of GGCT in gastric cancer is still largely unknown.

Identification of replication-dependent and replication-independent linker histone complexes: Tpr specifically promotes replication-dependent linker histone stability

There are 11 variants of linker histone H1 in mammalian cells. Beyond their shared abilities to stabilize and condense chromatin, the H1 variants have been found to have non-redundant functions, the mechanisms...

Avoiding false discovery in biomarker research

Human tyrosine-protein phosphatase non-receptor type substrate 1α (SIRPA) is a surface marker identified in cardiomyocytes differentiated from human embryonic stem cells. Our objective was to determine if circ...

Computational studies of human class V alcohol dehydrogenase - the odd sibling

All known attempts to isolate and characterize mammalian class V alcohol dehydrogenase (class V ADH), a member of the large ADH protein family, at the protein level have failed. This indicates that the class V...

Effect of mutations to amino acid A301 and F361 in thermostability and catalytic activity of the β-galactosidase from Bacillus subtilis VTCC-DVN-12-01

Beta-galactosidase (EC 3.2.1.23), a commercially important enzyme, catalyses the hydrolysis of β-1,3- and β-1,4-galactosyl bonds of polymer or oligosaccharidesas well as transglycosylation of β-galactopyranosi...

Sustained activation of mTORC1 in macrophages increases AMPKα-dependent autophagy to maintain cellular homeostasis

The mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) is a well-conserved serine/threonine protein kinase that controls autophagy as well as many other processes such as protein synthesis, cell growth, and me...

Auto-thiophosphorylation activity of Src tyrosine kinase

Intermolecular autophosphorylation at Tyr416 is a conserved mechanism of activation among the members of the Src family of nonreceptor tyrosine kinases. Like several other tyrosine kinases, Src can catalyze th...

Effects of protonation on the hydrolysis of triphosphate in vacuum and the implications for catalysis by nucleotide hydrolyzing enzymes

Nucleoside triphosphate (NTP) hydrolysis is a key reaction in biology. It involves breaking two very stable bonds (one P–O bond and one O–H bond of water), in either a concurrent or a sequential way. Here, we ...

Molecular characterization of protein kinase C delta (PKCδ)-Smac interactions

Protein kinase C δ (PKCδ) is known to be an important regulator of apoptosis, having mainly pro- but also anti-apoptotic effects depending on context. In a previous study, we found that PKCδ interacts with the...

Identification and characterization of the novel nuclease activity of human phospholipid scramblase 1

Human phospholipid scramblase 1 (hPLSCR1) was initially identified as a Ca 2+ dependent phospholipid translocator involved in disrupting membrane asymmetry. Recent reports revealed that hPLSCR1 acts as a multifunc...

Tubulin is a molecular target of the Wnt-activating chemical probe

In drug discovery research, cell-based phenotypic screening is an essential method for obtaining potential drug candidates. Revealing the mechanism of action is a key step on the path to drug discovery. Howeve...

Altered activity patterns of transcription factors induced by endoplasmic reticulum stress

The endoplasmic-reticulum (ER) responds to the burden of unfolded proteins in its lumen by activating intracellular signal transduction pathways, also known as the unfolded protein response (UPR). Many signal ...

Conserved motif VIII of murine DNA methyltransferase Dnmt3a is essential for methylation activity

Dnmt3a is a DNA methyltransferase that establishes de novo DNA methylation in mammals. The structure of the Dnmt3a C-terminal domain is similar to the bacterial M. HhaI enzyme, a well-studied prokaryotic DNA meth...

Linalool isomerase, a membrane-anchored enzyme in the anaerobic monoterpene degradation in Thauera linaloolentis 47Lol

Thauera linaloolentis 47Lol uses the tertiary monoterpene alcohol ( R,S )-linalool as sole carbon and energy source under denitrifying conditions. The conversion of linalool to geraniol ...

1,2-Dichlorobenzene affects the formation of the phosphoenzyme stage during the catalytic cycle of the Ca 2+ -ATPase from sarcoplasmic reticulum

1,2-Dichlorobenzene (1,2-DCB) is a benzene-derived molecule with two Cl atoms that is commonly utilized in the synthesis of pesticides. 1,2-DCB can be absorbed by living creatures and its effects on naturally-...

Substrate specificity and function of acetylpolyamine amidohydrolases from Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Pseudomonas aeruginosa , a Gram-negative, aerobic coccobacillus bacterium is an opportunistic human pathogen and worldwide the fourth most common cause of hospital-acquired infections w...

Erratum to: Purification and characterization of a cytochrome c with novel caspase-3 activation activity from the pathogenic fungus Rhizopus arrhizus

The original article was published in BMC Biochemistry 2015 16 :21

BMC Biochemistry Reviewer Acknowledgement, 2015

The editors of BMC Biochemistry would like to thank all our reviewers who have contributed their time to the journal in Volume 16 (2015).

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Polyamines in parkinson's disease: balancing between neurotoxicity and neuroprotection, structural biochemistry of muscle contraction, rubisco function, evolution, and engineering, thiolase: a versatile biocatalyst employing coenzyme a–thioester chemistry for making and breaking c–c bonds, mechanism of radical initiation in the radical sam enzyme superfamily, mitochondrial dna release in innate immune signaling, the inseparable relationship between cholesterol and hedgehog signaling, the activation mechanism of the insulin receptor: a structural perspective, translation and mrna stability control, 3′-end processing of eukaryotic mrna: machinery, regulation, and impact on gene expression, most read this month, most cited most cited rss feed, the ubiquitin system, protein misfolding, functional amyloid, and human disease, glutathione, the green fluorescent protein, g proteins: transducers of receptor-generated signals, assembly of asparagine-linked oligosaccharides, tgf-β signal transduction, lipopolysaccharide endotoxins, the heat-shock response.

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Pharmacological doses of thiamine benefit patients with the charcot–marie–tooth neuropathy by changing thiamine diphosphate levels and affecting regulation of thiamine-dependent enzymes.

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The Antioxidant Defense System of Tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum  L.) Varieties under Drought Stress and upon Post-Drought Rewatering

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Specificity of Photochemical Energy Conversion in Photosystem I from the Green Microalga Chlorella ohadii

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Key Enzymes of the Serotonergic System – Tryptophan Hydroxylase 2 and Monoamine Oxidase A – In the Brain of Rats Selectively Bred for a Reaction toward Humans: Effects of Benzopentathiepin TC-2153

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Biochemistry articles within Nature Methods

Brief Communication 05 July 2024 | Open Access

Microsecond time-resolved X-ray scattering by utilizing MHz repetition rate at second-generation XFELs

The MHz repetition rates available at second-generation X-ray free-electron lasers enable the collection of microsecond time-resolved X-ray scattering data with exceptionally low noise, providing insights into protein structural dynamics.

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• , Leonardo Monrroy
•  &  Sebastian Westenhoff

Brief Communication 04 July 2024 | Open Access

quantms: a cloud-based pipeline for quantitative proteomics enables the reanalysis of public proteomics data

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Research Briefing | 01 July 2024

Deep learning method for the prediction of glycan structures from mass spectrometry data

The annotation of structural glycomics data is a bottleneck in gaining insight into complex carbohydrates. An artificial intelligence model, CandyCrunch, has now been developed that accelerates the annotation process by orders of magnitude and achieves high accuracy in the prediction of glycan structures from tandem mass spectrometry data.

Article 01 July 2024 | Open Access

Predicting glycan structure from tandem mass spectrometry via deep learning

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Article 27 May 2024 | Open Access

Dissecting cell membrane tension dynamics and its effect on Piezo1-mediated cellular mechanosensitivity using force-controlled nanopipettes

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Ultralong transients enhance sensitivity and resolution in Orbitrap-based single-ion mass spectrometry

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TREX identifies region-specific protein interactors of RNA molecules

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TREX reveals proteins that bind to specific RNA regions in living cells

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Article 10 January 2024 | Open Access

Profiling of RNA-binding protein binding sites by in situ reverse transcription-based sequencing

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Correspondence | 08 January 2024

RepoRT: a comprehensive repository for small molecule retention times

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Mapping enzyme activity in living systems by real-time mid-infrared photothermal imaging of nitrile chameleons

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Article 04 January 2024 | Open Access

RNA structure profiling at single-cell resolution reveals new determinants of cell identity

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Brief Communication | 23 November 2023

Cardinal v.3: a versatile open-source software for mass spectrometry imaging analysis

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• Kylie Ariel Bemis
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Article 23 November 2023 | Open Access

Accurate prediction of protein–nucleic acid complexes using RoseTTAFoldNA

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Article | 13 November 2023

Peptide sequencing based on host–guest interaction-assisted nanopore sensing

A phenylalanine-containing peptide probe can be used for discriminating all 20 amino acids via current blockage during translocation through an α-hemolysin (αHL) nanopore. The paper provides proof-of-concept peptide sequencing demonstrations.

•  &  Hai-Chen Wu

Article 09 October 2023 | Open Access

OPUS-DSD: deep structural disentanglement for cryo-EM single-particle analysis

OPUS-DSD is a neural network-based algorithm that reconstructs distinct conformations or continuous dynamics of the macromolecular structural landscape, starting from single-particle cryo-EM data.

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Article | 02 October 2023

CryoREAD: de novo structure modeling for nucleic acids in cryo-EM maps using deep learning

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• , Genki Terashi
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Streamlined and sensitive mono- and di-ribosome profiling in yeast and human cells

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• Lucas Ferguson
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Article 02 October 2023 | Open Access

Spatial single-cell mass spectrometry defines zonation of the hepatocyte proteome

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Article | 25 September 2023

Unambiguous discrimination of all 20 proteinogenic amino acids and their modifications by nanopore

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• , Shanyu Zhang
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Teaching and Learning Medical Biochemistry: Perspectives from a Student and an Educator

Mehdi afshar.

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Room 547, Ross Hall, 2300 Eye Street NW, Washington, DC 20037 USA

Zhiyong Han

Advancement of medicine and that of biochemistry are inseparable, and much of modern medicine would not be practiced in the ways, as they are known today, without our understanding of how genetic, pathogenic and environmental factors affect the human body at the biochemical level. Thus, the importance of teaching medical students biochemistry is self-evident. Ironically, many medical students and practicing physicians consider learning biochemistry an unnecessary burden and that biochemistry has very little relevance to their daily practice of medicine [ 1 – 3 ]. Also, many students, especially those interested in fields such as primary care or psychiatry, also complain that there is too much anatomy in the preclinical curricula [ 1 ]. Thus, it seems that these students would prefer to selectively learn subject matters that they believe to be relevant to the medical specialties that they wish to acquire and practice in. Such utilitarian thinking, we believe, is in part responsible for the trend in medical curriculum that devaluates basic science and emphasizes apprenticeship experiences with clinical faculty [ 4 ].

Why do these medical students consider it unnecessary to learn biochemistry? What can educators do to convince them that learning biochemistry is important in their education? We have tried to answer these questions from the perspectives of M.A. (Mehdi Afshar), a fourth year medical student, and Z.H. (Zhiyong Han), a medical biochemistry educator. Based on our own experiences, we have considered and discussed four factors that we think partly explain why some medical students have unfavorable opinions about biochemistry (Table  1 ). We hope that our discussions could stimulate similar discussions among medical students and biochemistry educators elsewhere.

Factors negatively affecting medical students’ interest in biochemistry

Medical Biochemistry Needs to Present New Biochemistry Knowledge

A large number of the students admitted to medical schools already have undergraduate biochemistry education. But the experiences of MA show that much of his medical biochemistry materials are unnecessarily taught in ways and depth similar to those in his undergraduate biochemistry courses. We suggest that medical biochemistry should incorporate students’ previously learned knowledge with medical applications and fill in the gaps with new knowledge. For example, instead of re-teaching medical students to compare and contrast the structures of DNA and RNA and ask them to explain the difference between bases, one could discuss the biochemical basis of the “omics” that are profoundly changing medical research and medicine. Also, instead of re-teaching medical students the glycolysis pathway and asking them to memorize minute details of it, one could discuss the Warburg effect and why the glycolysis pathway serves to produce not only ATP, but more importantly molecules that are important for the metabolic requirements of cancer cells [ 5 ]. One could even discuss the rational for selecting certain glycolysis enzymes for the development of anti-cancer drugs [ 6 ]. This way of teaching is very likely to get students excited because it teaches them new knowledge and the applications of biochemistry knowledge to not only today’s medicine, but also future medicine.

Medical Students Need to Learn Medically Relevant Biochemistry

It puzzles students that medical biochemistry is generally presented outside the context of diseases and medicine. For example, medical students are still taught how to use the Gibbs free energy equation to calculate the free energy and equilibrium constant of reactions. We fail to see medical relevance of being able or unable to do so. Therefore, like others [ 7 ], we also suggest that educators need to focus on teaching medical biochemistry in ways that show medical relevance. To us, medically relevant biochemistry is one that gives students just enough information to be able to understand the basic mechanism of why a biochemical defect results in a disease and potential avenues of diagnosis and treatment. We admit that this is not an easy task, because so much biochemistry is about chemical formula, reaction mechanisms, pathways, and seemingly unrelated schemes that are too far detached from living human body functions, such as blood flow or heart beats; furthermore, because medical students take biochemistry prior to having any medical knowledge and hence it is extremely difficult for them to relate biochemistry to diseases by themselves as MA can tell from his personal experience. Nevertheless, it appears that most students can effectively learn and understand medical applications of biochemistry if the applications are presented to them in contextualized ways through uncomplicated medical cases. For example, students could easily see the biological importance and medical relevance of the V max and k m of glucokinase if they are shown real life cases of diabetes caused by mutations that alter the V max and k m of glucokinase [ 8 ].

Therefore, we suggest a way of teaching medical biochemistry. To do so, medical biochemistry educators need first to define core concepts and biochemical principles that teachers and students could review (or relearn) in a short period. The educator will then teach new concepts and medical applications of biochemistry, in an in-depth fashion, via a series of carefully designed PBL (problem-based learning) or CBL (case-based learning) modules [ 9 ]. The in-depth teaching should aim to (1) stimulate personal cognitive processes to first understand concepts and then connect concepts to construct knowledge structures, and (2) teach students to apply their knowledge to new situations and solve new problems. This way of teaching promotes lifelong learning, open inquiry, and critical thinking capability that physicians should have [ 10 , 11 ].

Alternatively, medical biochemistry could be taught in various way that integrate basic and clinical sciences that have been or are being adapted by medical schools worldwide [ 12 – 14 ]. Imagine the following scenario in an integrative curriculum. A biochemist starts the day by teaching students the biological roles of cholesterol, its synthesis, absorption, transportation, and disposition and how alterations in any of these processes change the laboratory values of the blood lipid test. The pathologist then continues by teaching the disease processes that result from dysregulation of the aforementioned events involving cholesterol. The nutritionist follows up by teaching dietary management of cholesterol-related disorders. Finally, the pharmacologist ends by discussing various treatment options and potential for future therapies. This integrative teaching allows students to see cholesterol metabolism in relationship to diseases and medicine from different perspectives without any delay.

Teaching of Medical Biochemistry Should Not Revolve Around Board Relevance

Some students seem to like the idea of learning just “board examination relevant” materials. As such, they simply want biochemistry to be presented to them in bullet points format that shows “key words connections” that are easy to recall during board examinations. This is a bad idea. Since board examinations assess a physician’s minimum competencies, we should not set the bar to the height of minimum competencies and limit ourselves to teaching and learning just a minimal amount of materials for passing examinations. We believe, for example, that it is not enough that physicians prescribe nucleoside analog-derived drugs, such as AZT, to treat HIV/AIDs—they should be able to articulate the biochemistry underlining the action mechanisms of these drugs. What we do not want is to produce physicians who can pass the board examinations with knowledge deficiencies and who are unable to critically read and understand the sciences in the articles published in medical journals, such as the Journal of Clinical Investigation , The Lancet , or the New England Journal of Medicine .

We Must Minimize Rote Memorization of Materials and Make Information Stick

Needless to say, students can attest that they have to memorize a huge amount of biochemistry materials. However, rote memorization is not synonymous to learning and understanding of the materials and produces learning fatigue. In the era of using pocket devices to instantly gain access to ubiquitous information, we should stop asking students to memorize a vast amount of details, such as the minute details in the metabolic pathways, as long as it does not reduce the quality of educational outcome. Instead, we should teach students how to conceptualize metabolic pathways with an emphasis on the biological roles of metabolic pathways and their interconnection in the context of physiology and diseases. Then, we test the students’ understanding of the metabolic pathways and their interconnection by assessing whether they know where and what information to look for in the metabolic pathway charts when solving problems. Thus, it is best, for example, if a student knows how to diagnose a metabolic defect that causes methymalonic acidemia using a metabolic pathway reference. This idea was proposed by Professor Edward J. Wood 23 years ago, and he suggested then that it would be better if we stop “asking students to remember detailed information [of a metabolic pathway], to reproduce it accurately under stressful, time-limited [examinations] conditions, and in competition with their peers [ 15 ].”

Equally important, biochemistry needs to be taught in ways that stick with students—the stickier the better—to reduce rote memorization. There are many ways to make things stick [ 16 ], and it requires personalities, presentation styles, use of vivid and sticky examples, clarity, and even something that shocks [ 16 ]. For example, the shocking case of a 66-year-old “man” who turns out to be genetically a woman with Turner’s syndrome plus virilising 21-hydroxylase deficiency should allow students to visually understand the function and biological significance of the 21-hydroxlyase in the context of steroid synthesis [ 17 ]. Stories like this one should grab students’ attention, induce students’ curiosity and interest, unfold medical/biochemical investigative events before students, vividly relate biochemistry to medicine, and will stick!

In summary, medical biochemistry needs to highlight how biochemistry applies to medicine, minimizes rote memorization, and stick with students. The best outcome should be one that highlights the connection between medical biochemistry and its clinical applications. The ultimate goal of medical biochemistry, in our opinion, should be to provide students with fundamental biochemistry concepts and principles that serve as a knowledge foundation enabling them to better study and understand the complexities of diseases and medicine. Teaching biochemistry concepts and principles to students should be aimed at helping the students to become scientifically literate so that they will gain the ability to become independent learners in the future, and be able to critically read and understand biomedical literatures, participate in biomedical research projects, and evaluate claims of efficacy and safety of new therapeutic strategies. This will help students become the best doctors that they can be, and provides the best care for patients throughout their careers.

Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Rakesh Kumar for bringing us together to discuss issues concerning teaching and learning biochemistry in the medical school. ZH thanks Drs. Mark S. Elliott and Glen A. Walker for many stimulating discussions about teaching medical biochemistry.