Biochemistry I

Biochemistry I is where the molecular biology you've learned in MBG 110/210 stops being descriptive and starts being mechanistic — you stop saying "proteins do things" and start reasoning about *why*, in terms of structure, binding energies, and reaction kinetics. Expect to spend the semester working through Stryer chapter by chapter (proteins, enzymes, carbohydrates, lipids, membranes), grinding Michaelis-Menten and allostery problems on weekly quizzes, and pairing the theory with six lab sessions that actually have you purifying and characterizing proteins. It's the conceptual backbone for Biochemistry II (metabolism) and basically every upper-level MBG course that touches enzymes, signaling, or drug action, so the kinetics intuition you build here pays off for years.