バクテリアからヒトまで生命は細胞で構成されていて、生命現象の根本には化学があります。生物を構成する物質や生体内に生じる化学物質、その化学反応の過程を対象とするのが生化学で、理解の進んだ原理や方法は実利的な応用にも役立てられています。本書では主要な概念を取り上げ、今日に至るまでその発展に貢献してきた歴史上の人物と研究を振り返るとともに現在の課題や革新を取り上げ紹介します。また生命工学や合成生物学といった周辺領域との融合について考察します。
   

• Introduces fundamental biochemical molecules such as proteins and DNA, and how they interact to bring life to our world
• Presents the key concepts in biochemistry through their historical context
• Describes the importance of biochemistry research and innovations to the modern world

   
From the simplest bacteria to humans, all living things are composed of cells of one type or another, all of which have fundamentally the same chemistry. This chemistry must provide mechanisms that allow cells to interact with the external world, a means to power the cell, machinery to carry out varied processes within the cell, a structure within which everything runs, and also governance through a web of interlocking chemical reactions. Biochemistry is the study of those reactions, the molecules that are created, manipulated, and destroyed as a result of them, and the massive macromolecules (such as DNA, cytoskeletons, proteins and carbohydrates) that form the chemical machinery and structures on which these biochemical reactions take place.
   
It didn't take long for an understanding of the chemistry of life to turn into a desire to manipulate it. Drugs and therapies all aim to modify biochemical processes for good or ill: Penicillin, derived from mould, stops bacteria making their cell walls. Aspirin, with its origins in willow bark, inhibits enzymes involved in inflammatory responses. A few nanograms of botulinum toxin (botox), can kill by preventing the release of neurotransmitters from the ends of nerves and so leads to paralysis and death, or give a wrinkle free forehead (if administered in very tiny quantities).This Very Short Introduction discusses the key concepts of biochemistry, as well as the historical figures in the field and the molecules they studied, before considering the current science and innovations in the field, and the interaction between biochemistry, biotechnology, and synthetic biology.