Tips For Metabolic Biochemistry

I promised when I started this blog, that I would post tips from professors on how to do well in common pre-medical classes. The first set of tips is for metabolic biochemistry. Although it is not a prerequisite for medical school, an upper level biochemistry course is highly recommended for all pre-medical students by most schools. Dr. Canfield, of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Arizona, has provided me with the following “information sorter” to be used when studying a metabolic pathway. She has told me how well it worked for so many students in the past. I can also attest to that because I myself have used the “information sorter.” It helped me quite a bit. This is a modification of an earlier version by Dr. Marc Tischler, also a professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Arizona.

Information Sorter for Metabolic Pathways

1. Purpose of the pathway.
2. How the pathway connects to other pathways.
3. How (conditions) the pathway is stimulated or inhibited.
4. Names of molecules entering and leaving the pathway.
5. Identify the control points – (regulatory steps)
6. Identify regulatory molecules and the direction in which they push the pathway.
7. Names of reactants and products for each regulated enzyme and each enzyme making or using ATP equivalents (e.g., NADH, GTP, FADH2).
8. Essential vitamins and cofactors involved in the pathway
9. Specific molecules that inhibit or activate specific enzymes.
10. Consequences of enzyme defects discussed during lecture.