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Biochemists: Investigating the Chemistry of Living Things

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By Science Buddies on April 30, 2014 6:30 AM

Students interested in projects involving food science, microbiology, plants, bacteria, and the effectiveness of different medicines may want to learn more about biochemistry as a possible science career path. Biochemists work on a wide range of exciting projects involving chemical processes that happen within living organisms.

By Kim Mullin

What do the questions in the images above all have in common?

Got the answer yet? Some of the projects above appear in the food sciences area at Science Buddies, and some of them are classified as microbiology, biotechnology, human health and biology, and plant science projects. As different as some of these projects may seem from one another, they all involve studying chemical processes that occur in living organisms. Because of this, all of these are projects, questions, and challenges that a biochemist might work on.

Would I Want to Be a Biochemist?

Do the investigations listed above sound interesting to you? Do you enjoy biology and chemistry classes? Are you curious about the way medicines work in the body? Do you wonder about the mutations in organisms that lead to diseases like cancer? Are you interested in cell development? Are you inspired by current stem cell research? Are there conditions or diseases you would like to better understand and even work on helping find a cure? Do you love the idea of being the first person to discover something new about what's going on inside living organisms? If these science topics sound intriguing, then biochemistry is a field of science you may want to explore!

To learn more about a career in biochemistry, visit the Science Buddies Biochemist career page. There, you can
find out more about the education requirements for biochemists, average salaries, and sample projects and tasks that a biochemist might do. You can also read interviews with current biochemists to learn what they do in a typical day, what they love about their jobs, and how they got into the field. For example, meet Stuart Barnscher, a chemist at Agensys, Helen McBride, a scientist at Amgen, and Michael DiDonato, a research investigator at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation.

From cancer research to immunology, these scientists are working on exciting projects as biochemists!

Explore the World of Biochemistry with Science Buddies

At Science Buddies, students will find a wide variety of biochemistry Project Ideas. From food stabilization to the impact of medicine on the body to processes like coagulation, the list of science projects below highlights some of the many hands-on student science projects that can help a student explore biochemistry and start thinking about this exciting STEM career path: