[Tartarus]

Hello, I'm wondering how many of you took undergraduate biochemistry at a school that stressed the organic chemistry behind the pathways and not just mere memorization?

One of my biggest frustrations I've had with the first and second courses of biochem is the fact that 75% is mind numbing memorization and the remaining 25% touches briefly on organic chemistry/general chemistry, which I thought was pretty cool. The mechanisms are all there in my book but we are not held responsible for them.

Memorizing structures, that's fine. Sometime it has to be done. But I would find my biochemistry text book more entertaining to read if it involved organic-like thinking.

So What gives? The biochemistry major at my school is in the chemistry department and not in the biology. If it were in the bio department, I'd say this is fair game and I would not be disappointed.

*I'm not saying biology is easier than chemistry, just venting really*

So, please share with me your thoughts. I'd like to hear what you all have to say.

[Babcock_Hall]

To some extent one might write the textbooks a little bit differently to emphasize mechanisms more (I am especially fond of coenzyme chemistry).  Some of the older textbooks might do this a bit better.  My guess is that the market for textbooks is a little bit more geared toward biology biochemistry than chemistry biochemistry.  Beyond the mechanisms, even the pathways themselves often have a chemical logic a teacher could highlight.  Obviously, a motivated student could figure out the logic of a given pathway on his or her own.

[Tartarus]

Yes, I agree. Following the chemical logic when oxidizing/reducing agents are present is easy. I sometimes do the mechanisms in my head to help me memorize the pathway.

[Yggdrasil]

If you're interested in learning more about the chemical logic behind metabolism, I'd suggest reading the following two recent articles covering just that.  You might even show them to your instructors so that they might incorporate some of the ideas into future classes:

Rabinowitz and Vastag (2012) Teaching the design principles of metabolism.  Nat Chem Biol. 8: 497.  doi:10.1038/nchembio.969

Bar-Even, Flamholz, Noor, and Milo (2012) Rethinking glycolysis: on the biochemical logic of metabolic pathways. Nat Chem Biol. 8: 509.  doi:10.1038/nchembio.971

[Tartarus]

I asked a few questions last semester regarding the mechanisms in glycolysis but my professor did not seem that interested, and so I just kept quite afterward. I doubt presenting the articles will work because he/she said that we are not responsible for them. However, I'll check the articles out in a bit, thank you.

Cool name by the way! Norse/germanic cosmology is absolutely fascinating. Hail to the old gods!

[curiouscat]

Cool name by the way! Norse/germanic cosmology is absolutely fascinating. Hail to the old gods!

Just trying to pronounce it gave me a severe case of lingual knots.   

[Borek]

Just trying to pronounce it gave me a severe case of lingual knots.   

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