Since our name includes the words 'chemistry' and 'biology', some find it confusing to distinguish between BCMB and these other disciplines.

The best way to understand what a field is like is to examine national expectations of graduates in those fields.

Many disciplines have professional organizations that guide these expected educational outcomes. For Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology, our professional organization is the ASBMB (American Society of Biochemists and Molecular Biologists).

Further, many graduate schools use GRE scores to judge student undergraduate preparation for their respective subject areas. We can thus use GRE exams for.more guidance about defining the national expectations for persons graduating from corresponding undergraduate programs.

Below are the GRE content areas in Biology, BCMB and Chemistry: More information can be found at http://www.gre.org/subjtest.html

When you look at these materials, you will clearly see that

1. The topic areas are different. The biology graduate is expected to know more about organismal biology and ecology (constituting 2/3 of the exam). Conversely, the biochemistry molecular biology student is expected to know more about biochemistry (absent from Biology GRE), as well as more depth in cell and molecular biology. Though chemistry is an important part of learning the bcmb subjects, the subject areas in chemistry are totally different from bcmb.

 

2. The BCMB student uses chemistry and biology to inform their study of life process on the molecular level, but it has emerged into its own field that is distinct from its parent fields of biology and chemistry..

 

The Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology GRE

I. BIOCHEMISTRY (36%)

A. Chemical and Physical Foundations

B. Biomolecules: Structure, Assembly,

C. Catalysis and Binding

D. Major Metabolic Pathways

E. Bioenergetics

F. Regulation and Integration of Metabolism

G. Methodology

II. CELL BIOLOGY (28%)

A. Cellular Compartments of Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes: Organization, Dynamics, and
Functions

B. Cell Surface and Communication

C. Cytoskeleton, Motility, and Shape

D. Protein Synthesis and Processing

E. Cell Division, Differentiation, and Development

III. MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND GENETICS (36%)

A. Genetic Foundations

B. Chromatin and Chromosomes

C. Genomics

D. Genome Maintenance

E. Gene Expression

F. Gene Regulation in Prokaryotes

G. Gene Regulation in Eukaryotes

H. Bacteriophages and Animal and Plant Viruses

I. Methodology

 

The Biology GRE

 

I. CELLULAR AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY (33-34%)

A. Cellular Structure and Function (16-17%)
B. Genetics and Molecular Biology (16-17%)

II. ORGANISMAL BIOLOGY (33-34%)

A. Animal Structure, Function, and Organization (9-10%)

B. Animal Reproduction and Development (5-6%)
C. Plant Structure, Function, and Organization, with Emphasis on
Flowering Plants (6-7%)

D. Plant Reproduction, Growth, and Development, with Emphasis on
Flowering Plants (4-5%)

E. Diversity of Life (6-7%)

III. ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION (33-34%)

A. Ecology (16-17%)
B. Evolution (16-17%)

I. ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY (15%)

A. Data Acquisition and Use of
Statistics
B. Solutions and Standardization
C. Homogeneous Equilibria
D. Heterogeneous Equilibria
E. Instrumental Methods
F. Environmental Applications
G. Radiochemical Methods

II. INORGANIC CHEMISTRY (25%)

A. General Chemistry
B. Ionic Substances
C. Covalent Molecular Substances
D. Metals and Semiconductors
E. Concepts of Acids and Bases
F. Chemistry of the Main Group
Elements
G. Chemistry of the Transition
Elements
H. Special Topics

III. ORGANIC CHEMISTRY (30%)

A. Structure, Bonding, and
Nomenclature
B. Functional Groups
C. Reaction Mechanisms
D. Reactive Intermediates
E. Organometallics
F. Special Topics

IV. PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY (30%)

A. Thermodynamics
B. Quantum Chemistry and
Applications to Spectroscopy
C. Dynamics

Also for your reference, below is the list of outcomes suggested by ASBMB for undergraduate BCMB programs. Note that they correlate well with GRE expectations.

Content

1. Cell structure
2. Structure-function relationships of biomolecules
3. Protein folding, molecular basis for protein function, regulation of protein activity, (proteomics)
4. DNA/RNA structure and function
5. Enzyme kinetics, mechanisms of reversible and irreversible enzyme inhibitors, ligand binding, detailed chemical mechanisms of enzymes,
6. Metabolism and regulation, signal transduction,
7. Supramolecular assemblies.
8. Physical biochemistry: Thermodynamics, kinetics, molecular spectroscopy, solutions and equilibria, ligand interactions, molecular modeling.
9. Classical genetics and the "Central Dogma:"
10. DNA replication, transcription and translation,
11. Topics in DNA/RNA structure-function,
12. Genomics, regulation of gene expression in prokaryotes and eukaryotes
13. Protein synthesis and processing,
14. Genetic engineering techniques,
15. Bio-informatics

Lab Skills

1. Isolation and characterization of proteins and other biomolecules,
2. enzyme kinetics and inhibition
3. genetic engineering techniques
4. quantitative techniques
5. data acquisition/statistics, ­
6. use of computer databases, ­
7. spectroscopy (e.g. UV/VIS, fluorescence, NMR, MS), -
8. electrophoretic techniques (e.g. PAGE, CE, blotting, etc.) ­
9. chromatography (need add HPLC) ­
10. DNA isolation and sequencing ­
11. cloning­
12. PCR ­
13. microscopy
14. aseptic techniques
15. microarrays?

General Skills

1. Awareness of the major issues at the forefront of the discipline. ­ Develop Senior Seminar
2. Ability to assess primary papers critically. ­ Develop Senior Seminar
3. Ability to dissect a problem into its key features.
4. Ability to design experiments and understand the limitations of the experimental approach.
5. Ability to interpret experimental data and identify consistent and inconsistent components.
6. Ability to design follow-up experiments.
7. Ability to work safely and effectively in a laboratory.
8. Awareness of the available resources and how to use them.
9. Ability to use computers as information and research tools.
10. Ability to collaborate with other researchers.
11. Ability to use oral, written and visual presentations to present their work to both a science literate and a science non-literate audience.
12. Ability to think in an integrated manner and look at problems from different perspectives.
13. Awareness of the ethical issues in the molecular life sciences. ­ Develop Senior Seminar
14. Good "quantitative" skills such as the ability to accurately and reproducibly prepare reagents