Biochemistry resources - a guide to my favorite books, articles, sites, software, etc.

And seriously, Google is basically my #1 resource :) So a big part of grad school is Googling! (and critically evaluating what you find!). A lot of the time Google will take me to some of these sites - other times I go straight to these sites, often through bookmarked tabs. But no matter how I find them, I’m grateful for them!

waay more links and notes in the blog version: https://bit.ly/bumblingbiochemisttoolbox

Oh - and if you have a super specific question you can’t find the answer to anywhere, try asking on Twitter or Reddit. It’s worked great for me many a time!

Note: a lot of these resources have a lot more features than I’ve used (or than I even know about!) so I’m going to highlight just what I’ve used them for - but of course feel free to explore and use even more! Note that the order within sections is mostly un-intentional (not ranking them or anything!)

Resources for learning

First a couple pages on my site that might help - Brisources you might say...:
* “experimental techniques” page where you can find links to posts on things like SDS-PAGE, PCR, western blots, etc. https://thebumblingbiochemist.com/lets-talk-science/techniques/  
* a glossary of de-jargonnized biochemistry jargon https://thebumblingbiochemist.com/glossary-2/  
* protein purification page: https://thebumblingbiochemist.com/lets-talk-science/protein-purification/  
* one on mathy stuff (dimensional analysis, logarithms, standard deviation, etc.). https://thebumblingbiochemist.com/lets-talk-science/math-y-stuff/  
* one on metabolism (making and breaking molecules): https://thebumblingbiochemist.com/lets-talk-science/metabolism-making-and-breaking-molecules/  
* amino acids (protein letters) https://thebumblingbiochemist.com/lets-talk-science/amino-acids/
* grad-school related posts: https://bit.ly/gradschoolposts

Now that I’ve gotten the kinda awkward self-plugging out of the way, here are what other people have to say!

Books:
Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry by David L. Nelson and Michael M. Cox. MY ALL TIME FAVORITE

another great biochemistry textbook is Biochemistry: An Integrative Approach by John Tansey. I especially like the cool connections to real-world things which makes for a very relatable read.

for organic chemistry, I like Organic Chemistry Made Ridiculously Simple by Gene A. Davis

Cell Biology by the Numbers by Rob Phillips and Ron Milo. I was introduced to this book when I got to take a course by Dr. Philipps and it was awesome! I really like this book because it gives you a sense of sizes and dimensions and speeds of various cellular processes so you can really put abstract concepts in context. It emphasizes back-of-the-envelope calculations and makes things simple. There’s a print edition but you can also read it for free online http://book.bionumbers.org/

Websites:

Bionumbers: The Database of Useful Biological Numbers: this site is a go-along to the Cell Biology by the Numbers book. It has tons and tons of statistics for things you never knew you wanted to know (like length of an eye blink) as well as core key values like cell diameters, replication times, etc. https://bionumbers.hms.harvard.edu/search.aspx

They have a cheat sheet with key numbers: https://bionumbers.hms.harvard.edu/keynumbers.aspx

LabXchange: this site run by Harvard and amgen hosts a variety of free educational content (and even shares some of my stuff). They have a range of content - videos, text, infographics, and, coolest of all, interactive virtual labs. Teachers can use it to build course content and pathways but students can just use it freely as well and there are a range of pre-made "clusters" which are kinda like mini-courses that content content from multiple different collaborators. https://www.labxchange.org/explore

The Medical Biochemistry Page: this website has come in really handy for a lot of my posts where there’s a medical connection as well as a lot of my amino acid posts. They do a great job going in-depth on biochemical pathways and key players as well as how mutations in those players can cause problems https://themedicalbiochemistrypage.org/

Chemguide: I LOVE this site for whenever I’m confused about anything chemistry-y! https://www.chemguide.co.uk/  

Chemistry LibreTexts: they have a bunch of really great free open-access text content. https://chem.libretexts.org/

HyperPhysics: hosted by GeorgiaState University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy. I tend to end up here a lot via Google but here’s their main link http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/index.html

Addgene blog, especially Plasmids 101: everything you ever wanted to know about plasmids and molecular cloning including details and comparisons of various techniques. https://info.addgene.org/plasmids-101-topic-page

wayyyyy more in the blog form: https://bit.ly/bumblingbiochemisttoolbox