Which book do you use for Biochemistry?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
DoctaJay

DoctaJay

bone breaker
Moderator Emeritus
Verified Member
Verified Expert
15+ Year Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2005
Messages
3,016
Reaction score
53
Hey everyone. Right now in undergard, we use Lehninger's Principles of Biochemistry 4th edition. I really don't like the book because it seems more geared towards graduate school than med school, but I was wondering whether that is the book what most med schools use? If so, then maybe I'll have more incentive to study and fight off the senioritis.
Members don't see this ad.
 
I use that for my undergrad biochem course as well.
 
lol, no no. I was saying that I'm in undergrad now, and thats the book we use, and I was wondering whether the same book is used in medical school.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
it is not used in med school. There are only medical application is those yellow boxes which are scttered throughout the book.
 
The majority of our notes come from lecture slides and such, but our professor (who is listed as a main author lol) suggests us to use
Marks Basic Medical Biochemistry A Clinical Approach


the BRS biochemistry books have been helpful addendums to our education as well
 
Most places use Lippincott, if you get the review one its good for board review too. It's a pretty good book, but biochem is one of the least book-necessary courses - everything is pretty clear in the notes, it's just memorizing all that crap.
 
Brown429 said:
it is not used in med school. There are only medical application is those yellow boxes which are scttered throughout the book.
Click to expand...

It is one of the recommended books here at GW. It's the main biochem book that I use.
 
I use Lehninger now, I used Voet and Voet undergrad. Lehninger doesn't go as far in depth, but it's much easier to read.
 
dilated said:
Most places use Lippincott, if you get the review one its good for board review too. It's a pretty good book, but biochem is one of the least book-necessary courses - everything is pretty clear in the notes, it's just memorizing all that crap.
Click to expand...

Yeah most of our lectures use the figures from lippencotts and follow its topics. Sometimes the book is clearer than the lecturer so I try to do a run thru of the book once and the lecture once to make sure I'm getting all the lecturer's personal details while actually understanding what on earth they are talking about. Hopefully having lippencotts highlighted to he// will be usefull when I study for the shelf and for the step.
 
psipsina said:
Yeah most of our lectures use the figures from lippencotts and follow its topics.
Click to expand...

Ditto here.

I never bought a book. Our course guide had all of the relevant figures from Lippincott.

Voet is too in-depth in a lot of places. That was my undergrad text, and I never cracked it for med school.
 
We also use Smith, Marks, and Lieberman -- Medical Biochemistry, A Clinical Approach.
 
tacrum43 said:
It is one of the recommended books here at GW. It's the main biochem book that I use.
Click to expand...

I did not know that "nonmedical" biochemistry books were recommended for medical school, you sure it is Principles of Biochemistry?
 
No book needed for the course -- everything is pretty detailed in the syllabus and lecture slides. Use BRS review text to prep for step 1.

By the way, OP, have you decided what school you're headed to?
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Brown429 said:
I did not know that "nonmedical" biochemistry books were recommended for medical school, you sure it is Principles of Biochemistry?
Click to expand...

And I quote from our student handbook, for the Biochemistry course:

"Faculty Recommended Texts:

Lehninger A. Principles of Biochemistry. 4th Edition. ISBN: 0716743396"

The other faculty recommended book is Berg's Biochemistry 5th edition. The handbook also mentions that some students prefer to use the Lippincott book, although it is not offcially recommended.

So yep, apparently "nonmedical" texts are used (though I'm not really sure what you mean by that term). We've only completed the first third of the course so far, but a lot of it so far has basic biochemistry like what makes up lipids, carbohydrates, etc plus basic genetic principles. It probably varies somewhat from school to school, but I guess you have to remember that most medical schools do not require you to take either genetics or biochemistry in undergrad. Therefore, it seems to make sense that they use a basic biochem book; it is, afterall, a "basic science" course. Let me assure you, however, that we are moving through the material much, much faster than in any biochem or genetics course I ever had in undergrad.

I actually like the Lehninger book fairly well, as textbooks go, being that I am not a "textbook" person.
 
Sorry I was not sure. In my undergrad class we have covered chapters 1-14 expluding chapter 8 since january 24th, is that how fast you guys are moving? This biochem class covers biochem I and II in one semester, its intense?
 
Brown429 said:
Sorry I was not sure. In my undergrad class we have covered chapters 1-14 expluding chapter 8 since january 24th, is that how fast you guys are moving? This biochem class covers biochem I and II in one semester, its intense?
Click to expand...

Okay, it's probably not quite that fast, and we don't go in order of the book chapters. You're just responsible for learning the material out of the book as a supplement when the material covered in lecture doesn't include certain information that might be necessary to understand it. For example, learning the amino acid structures so you can understand why certain proteins act in certain ways.

However, there are other things added in that you wouldn't normally get in a biochem class. I mentioned genetics, but here at GW it also includes information on metabolic disorders, etc. I guess the medical course focuses a bit more on human biochemistry, but it does also include the esstential background material, which is why we use Lehninger as a "recommended book". I guess that's one difference in medical school: rarely is a book actually required reading, and I have never seen a course based entirely on a book. You just have to learn the material, but how you do that is up to you.

edit: I just wanted to add that I'm sure the course content and books used vary from school to school. My original point was only that we do use the Lehninger book as a reference/recommended book, although it is true that the course is not based on it. It is not based on any book. Rather, most of the professors make up their own handouts which contain most of the material you need to know.
 
My undergraduate biochemistry course was much harder than the medical school version.

Undergrad: Lehninger

Med School: Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews for Biochemistry (and a little BRS, but not really)
 
ijcMD said:
My undergraduate biochemistry course was much harder than the medical school version.

Undergrad: Lehninger

Med School: Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews for Biochemistry (and a little BRS, but not really)
Click to expand...
man, so you must have aced biochem in medschool then. I hope what I'm battling through now will help me later.
 
when i need to go beyond our class notesets and Lippincott, i usually either use berg/stryer (free on-line), or grab lehninger when i'm at our library. i used voet & voet in undergrad and it's a great book, but it's too detailed and sometimes it's a pain to search for the basic stuff.

doctajay, just hold onto your lehninger's and you'll be good to go. prob no need to buy another text for med, except maybe for a brs, which is cheap. best of luck.
 
Devlin doesn't seem to be very popular, but it's what my future med school recommends. Does anyone use it? What do you think about it?

Right now I'm auditing biochem at the local state school. We use baby Voet and Voet which is completely basic and easy to understand. It's actually kind of sad that this 400 level class uses that text... in my basic biology courses at a different school (before organic) we used Berg.
 
I like Lippincotts. Has cool illustrations.
 
Our main "recommended" text was Mathews and VanHolde, Biochemistry(3rd Edition).

That being said the only time I ever looked at it (used a reserve copy in the library) was to find something above and beyond what we needed to know for class for my own knowledge.

We used primarily course notes and Lippincott's. But, anytime I wanted a different perspective, I busted out my good old Lehninger text from undergrad, and it never once let me down.
 
as far as board prep goes which is better for biochem:

Kaplan, HY, or BRS ?
 
Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews for Biochemistry .
 
Word on the street, UNM SOM uses Lehninger, but I believe it is taught by a PhD and don't tell a PhD you just want to know the clinically relevant aspects of biochemistry, they'll crap themselves! I love PhD's but you have to remember, they hate med students for reasons just like this.😛
 
Devlin with Clinical Correlations is better than Lehninger if you want to do medicine and not biochem phd
 
Docta Jay, don't buy a new book and don't worry about biochemistry in medical school. If you majored in the subject at a halfway decent university, you'll probably coast through biochemistry in medical school. It's a much faster paced class in medical school, but the depth is much less, and highlights the pathways that you probably had drilled in to your head in college. Keep in mind that most of your colleagues won't have had biochemistry, or at least not as extensively as you. That subject should be the least of your worries.
 
Green Chimneys said:
Docta Jay, don't buy a new book and don't worry about biochemistry in medical school. If you majored in the subject at a halfway decent university, you'll probably coast through biochemistry in medical school. It's a much faster paced class in medical school, but the depth is much less, and highlights the pathways that you probably had drilled in to your head in college. Keep in mind that most of your colleagues won't have had biochemistry, or at least not as extensively as you. That subject should be the least of your worries.
Click to expand...

👍 Trudat.
 
mrs.smith said:
Devlin with Clinical Correlations is better than Lehninger if you want to do medicine and not biochem phd
Click to expand...


One thing that you might find is that there are multiple "recommended texts" for Biochemistry which are all quite adequate for a medical biochemistry course. Some schools will stick to one text such as Devlin or Lehninger & Fox but others will have array that includes Rawn, Stryer, Voet & Voet. Again, all are fine.

Lippincott (Champ & Harvey) is a nice review book. It is likely adequate coupled with your syllabus & class notes.

My medical school had assigned readings out of several texts (all were on reserve in the library). Again, no one text is the "best" and all have strong points. Devlin has great Clinical correlations; Lehninger & Fox has great illustrations; Rawn is the best illustrated(and a wonderful book to read); Voet & Voet has great thermodynamics but is a difficult read for some folks; Stryer is a difficult read for some people.
 
tulane06 said:
I use Lehninger now, I used Voet and Voet undergrad. Lehninger doesn't go as far in depth, but it's much easier to read.
Click to expand...

medstylee said:
i used voet & voet in undergrad and it's a great book, but it's too detailed and sometimes it's a pain to search for the basic stuff.
Click to expand...

I personally think voet and voet is a complete crap and a total waste of money. I'm using it now for my undergrad and its a pretty horrible book. It goes into way too much detail. Supposedly it was written for use in "schools of pharmacy or medicine," but I think it would be perfect for a physical biochem course.
 
DoctaJay said:
Hey everyone. Right now in undergard, we use Lehninger's Principles of Biochemistry 4th edition. I really don't like the book because it seems more geared towards graduate school than med school, but I was wondering whether that is the book what most med schools use? If so, then maybe I'll have more incentive to study and fight off the senioritis.
Click to expand...

Buy the new BRS Biochemistry and Cell Biology book (the green cover). Awesome.
 
obviously i'm not a frequent poster...i mainly lurk...but yeah, to add to the convo, voet was my chem 1 prof in undergrad...he's just as complicated (and detail oriented) as his biochem textbook...

i'm not yet in med school...starting in august, but lehninger's book isn't bad...a decent read for biochem stuff
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

biscuit28
Third Party Resources for M1 - Which to get and how to use??
Replies
12
Views
4K
sky1786
sky1786
S
  • Poll Poll
MD & DO Which course is tougher?
Replies
8
Views
865
Goro
Goro
S
MD & DO So like how do you go about choosing which residency programs to apply to?
Replies
1
Views
861
voxveritatisetlucis
V
N
Don’t use ChatGPT during rotations
Replies
17
Views
2K
VincentAdultman
VincentAdultman
D
Which letters of rec for anesthesia?
Replies
0
Views
576
darth_chonker
D
Top