About the Department
The department of Biochemistry is one of the Midlands State University’s preclinical departments in the Faculty of Medicine. We conduct medical research and teaching. The teaching programmes of the Biochemistry Department mainly cater for medical students in their preclinical years. Our teaching aims to highlight the connection between medical biochemistry and its clinical applications.
Biochemistry can be defined as the science that deals with the chemical basis of life and hence it is inextricably intertwined with human health and disease. Advancement of medicine and that of biochemistry are inseparable, and much of modern medicine would not be practiced in the ways, as they are known today, without our understanding of how genetic, pathogenic and environmental factors affect the human body at the biochemical level. Our preclinical training of prospective medical practitioners aims to provide students with fundamental biochemistry concepts and principles that serve as a knowledge foundation enabling them to better study and understand the complexities of diseases and medicine. The mission of the department is to produce scientifically literate medical doctors who have the ability to evaluate claims of efficacy and safety of new therapeutic strategies.
The interrelationship between Biochemistry and Medicine is a two way street. Biochemical studies have illuminated many aspects of health and disease. For instance, a knowledge of protein structure and function was necessary to elucidate the single biochemical difference between normal hemoglobin and sickle cell hemoglobin.