Abstract
For over 40 years of working in the area of biochemistry and molecular biology, 30 of which have been spent teaching at the University of Malaga, I have been involved in the theoretical and practical teaching of the subject initially called biochemistry and now called biochemistry and molecular biology (BMB). The expansion of this scientific discipline and the renewed interest in research have led to such a large accumulation of knowledge (knowledge base) that the elaboration of a BMB program requires applying notable doses of synthesis; otherwise, it would be impossible to cover all this subject within the strict confines of the bi-semestral term. Advances in medicine and BMB are inseparable, and much of modern medicine would not be practiced as it is if it were not for our understanding of how hereditary, pathogenic, and environmental factors affect the human body at the molecular level. The importance, therefore, of teaching medical students biochemistry is evident. BMB is a subject that corresponds to the area of biomedicine and is taught during the first year of medicine. The main aim is to study the basics of chemical structures from the molecular viewpoint, with special emphasis on regulating and integrating aspects, necessary to understand such disciplines as physiology, pharmacology, or pathology. Thus, based on many years of experience teaching BMB to medical undergraduates, my aim is to define what it is that a graduate in medicine should know about the subject.
Highlights
Biochemistry and molecular biology (BMB) really refers to the chemistry of life, though it overlaps and complements other disciplines, including cell biology, genetics, immunology, microbiology, pharmacology, and physiology
Many fields use the forename molecular to define the type of science involved, such as molecular genetics, molecular microbiology, molecular physiology, molecular pharmacology, and even molecular pathology
Limitations Inherent to the Teaching and Learning of This Subject term or denomination of the subject Bbiochemistry and molecular biology.^ In most medical faculties in Spain, this subject is taught during the first year
Summary
Biochemistry and molecular biology (BMB) really refers to the chemistry of life, though it overlaps and complements other disciplines, including cell biology, genetics, immunology, microbiology, pharmacology, and physiology. BMB is studied to be able to understand the relation between the molecular and structural components of nutrition (proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids; vitamins and essential minerals), metabolism (sophisticated molecular structure of chemical transformations where the tissues have specialized functions), and the genome, which is the basis of everything, via the molecules of life (DNA, RNAs, and proteins). The energy from this transfer of electrons is used to produce ATP by the process of oxidative phosphorylation The study of these chapters will be useful clinically to understand the function of the vitamins and the mechanisms of interruption of energy production by toxins or deficiencies. In the chapter devoted to lipid metabolism, we study how the triacylglycerols, which constitute the main source of energy for the organism, are obtained from food or synthesized, mainly in the liver They are transported in the blood as lipoproteins and stored in the adipose tissue. As the students do not have the time to consult all these texts, and remembering that our particular subject is not the only one (though each professor usually considers his or her subject as the most important in the year or even in the whole degree course), I consider the texts by Lehninger [11] and Stryer [12] always worth consulting and those of Baynes et al [13], Feduchi et al [14], Ferrier [15], and Lieberman [16], among others, slightly easier for the student
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