CHEM 4810
General Biochemistry I
Topics include the properties and structures of biomolecules, including amino acids, nucleotides, lipids, carbohydrates, proteins and nucleic acids. Additional topics include enzyme kinetics and mechanisms, membrane structure and properties, protein folding, an introduction to metabolism, oxidative phosphorylation and photosynthesis. This course is the first semester of an integrated two-semester sequence.
Instructors
Craig Smith, Hani Zaher, Himadri Pakrasi, Joseph Jez, Joshua Blodgett, Joshua Maurer, Meredith Jackrel, Robert Blankenship
Reviews
Dr. Zaher was really nice. The material is hard but he makes it so every student understands what is going on! :)
12/13/2025
Bio faculty cannot teach. Reading off of ppts is not teaching. Get the ppts, do the reading, and get old tests and you will do fine. I am not prepping for mcat and I am having to actually learn the material. So frustrating.
1/20/2025
Craig is the best professor I've had here at WashU. I had him for Bio4525, and you can tell that he's someone who truly cares about his students and is passionate about the course material. He's a very engaging lecturer and fosters a collaborative teaching environment. We sat in groups of ~6 to figure out problems and give each other feedback.
12/6/2024
Dr. Smith's BIO 4525 Structural Bioinformatics of Proteins Writing Intensive was a great class and he was a great professor! All of the content and expectations were very clear and he walked us through the process of writing our papers. He is not only super helpful with class but a great mentor overall!
12/6/2024
I took Bio4525 with Dr. Smith. He teaches this class with so much enthusiasm which made the class exciting and engaging. He took the time to get to know each one of us on a personal level and fostered a really friendly community within the classroom. This class taught me to write scientifically and gave me skills I will use in my research career.
12/6/2024
10+ hrs/week
Worst experience of my life
7/6/2024
8-10 hrs/week
Hard to reach professors, extremely difficult exams, few resources outside of class.
6/21/2024
Lectures for 30-40/50 minutes and tells us to figure out the rest. Better off reading the textbook.
4/15/2024
Professor Zaher is a really great professor that really tries to get everyone in the class to understand the material. He is always forgiving and fair. However, the class can be somewhat disorganized at times. As long as you study the material well you can do well in the class. The recorded review sessions were particularly helpful.
1/9/2024
Biochemistry should be an interesting topic covering many materials essential for students' future careers. However, Jackrel and Pakrasi made this interesting class a terrible mess. The lectures are poorly organized. Unclear criteria grade problem sets. Exams contain topics not discussed during the lectures. Pretty annoying.
12/28/2023
Biochemistry should be an interesting topic covering many materials essential for students' future careers. However, Jackrel and Pakrasi made this interesting class a terrible mess. The lectures are poorly organized. Unclear criteria grade problem sets. Exams contain topics not discussed during the lectures. Pretty annoying.
12/28/2023
Biochemistry (in one semester, no less) is tough. Professor Zaher is a great professor, but you will have to put in the work. Office hours were incredibly helpful.
12/20/2023
I actually LOVE Dr. Zaher. He is easily the best professor I have ever had at WashU. He is super caring and understanding for every single student. He takes so much of his time and energy to answer everyone's questions before exams and during office hours. Please take this amazing class. He puts in so much effort that it made me WANT to learn.
12/7/2023
The class is super interesting and employs a really nice focus on structure to help in understanding everything else. Although her lectures are not the most engaging, she really does care about her students and wants them to succeed. The exams are graded fairly, although they are definitely not the easiest. Go to class if you want to do well here.
12/28/2022
EXTREMELY unclear grading criteria and very harsh. Doesn't seem to care about her students at all and wants them to fail. Reads off lecture slides so attendance is useless. Things that are not covered in class are often on exams. Even if you memorize all the slides, her questions are so irrelevant that you don't even know what she's asking for.
12/22/2022
This has been the absolute WORSE class I have ever taken at WashU. Jackrel's lectures are dry and boring. She quite literally reads off of slides. The practice material for the exam is not indicative of what will be on the exam at all. She chooses things mentioned VERY briefly to put of the exam, forcing you to memorize the hundreds of slides.
12/22/2022
She is accessible outside of class, which was nice. She cares about her students, but not about their success in the course. The exams are very difficult and there is no set expectation for how to do well. The answer keys are very detailed, so you must memorize everything. She also reads directly off of the slides, so going to lecture is pointless.
12/15/2022
yes the class is hard but hani is literally the sweetest prof. yes the class isn't really organized well but i promise if you anki the poop out of the lectures you'll get the A you wanted. you have to study your butt off for this class. you have to really understand biochem to pass the class. you're graded on three exams and hw every two weeks.
12/8/2022
I really enjoyed this class. Not really sure why there are thes ratings. Lectures were interesting with a lot of questions that we discussed with each other during class. Exams are a mix- some simple memorization, but some problems are a little tricky. The problem sets are long, but give a lot of practice for the tests. Replies to emails quickly.
11/9/2022
reads off lecture slides and doesn't really provide much detail into concepts. grade is determined by very few assignments (70% exams) so there's not much opportunity to do better. unclear grading criteria, doesn't provide enough practice problems, and thus there's no way to expect what to see on exams.
10/30/2022