Based on the course learning outcome, I was able to outline fundamental biochemical principles such as the structure and function of biomolecules from the first chapter which is Introduction to Biochemistry. In the first chapter, I learnt that biochemistry is a branch of science that uses the principle and language of chemistry to explain biology. With biochemistry, we can study life on a molecular level and describe the chemistry of living cell. Biochemistry can be divided into three areas of study which is conformational, metabolism and informational. Conformational focuses on the structure and three-dimensional arrangement of biomolecules such as protein structures, metabolism studies biochemical pathways and processes that requires energy production and utilization in cells while informational is the language for communication inside and between cells such as signal transduction. Aside from that, biochemistry has been applied in various fields such as in medicine and clinical, agriculture and industry. In medical and clinical, biochemistry has helped in the diagnostic and monitoring of diseases as well as the development of new and improved antibiotics and medications such as chemotherapy agents and designer drugs. In agriculture, the production of herbicides and pesticides and development of transgenic crops has been made possible with the application of biochemistry. Lastly, the application of biochemistry in the industry has led to the production of industrial and research material such as enzymes.

          Biomolecules are molecules that are involved in the maintenance and metabolic processes of living organisms. It mostly consists of carbon-containing compounds. Carbon can form single, double and triple bonds with other molecules such as hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen as well as with other carbon atoms. These covalently linked molecules form linear chain, branched chains and cyclic structures. Examples of biomolecules of cells are carbohydrates, lipids and proteins. Biomolecules are also known as organic compound if the structure includes organic groups such as alcohol (R-OH), aldehyde (R-COH), carboxylic acid (R-COOH) and thiol (R-SH). There are biomolecules with several common linkages within them such as ester and ether linkages are common in fatty acids and lipids, amide linkages are common in protein and phosphate ester linkages are common in nucleotides. Biomolecules can be divided into two types: 1) Biological micromolecules which are nucleotides, amino acids, carbohydrates and lipids, and 2) Biological macromolecules which are nucleic acids, proteins, polysaccharides, triglycerides and mixtures of the four macromolecules.

          Most of the reactions in cells are catalysed by enzymes thus the reactions proceed at very high rates. The reactions in biomolecules also involve specific chemical bonds or parts of molecules called functional groups. These functional groups determine the chemical properties and diversity of the biomolecules.

          Biomolecules tend to cluster together to form increasingly more complex structures such as cell membranes which are formed from mixtures of lipids and proteins, chromatin from DNA and protein and ribosomes from RNA and protein. These complex structures are known as organelles and can be found in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Prokaryotes are the simplest living cells and are usually unicellular while eukaryotes are multicellular. The most obvious difference between prokaryotes and eukaryotes is the presence of membrane-bound organelles in eukaryotes. An example of prokaryotic cell is Escherichia coli.