The study of energy metabolism is fundamental in multiple disciplines, such as biochemistry, bioengineering, biomedicine, etc. Traditionally, in high school and college level courses, students are taught energy metabolism (glycolysis, Krebs cycle, and oxidative phosphorylation) through diagrams of metabolic pathways that depict the transformation…

Enzymes are nature's catalysts, mediating chemical processes in living systems. The study of enzyme function and mechanism includes defining the maximum catalytic rate and affinity for substrate/s (among other factors), referred to as enzyme kinetics. Enzyme kinetics is a staple of biochemistry curricula and other disciplines, from molecular and…

The inhibition of porcine pancreatic lipase by the drug orlistat was studied through a series of activities that combine experimental and computational procedures. The enzymatic activity of the lipase was determined by measuring enzyme kinetics and calculating parameters such as K[subscript m] and V[subscript max] from experimental data. Assays of…

Enzymes provide attractive targets for drug development. Quantitative analysis of enzyme reactions can lead to rational drug discovery. For undergraduates majoring in biochemistry or pharmacy and engaged in drug discovery-related work, it is essential to acquire a comprehensive understanding of enzyme kinetics, including experimental methods and…

The field of biosensors is a burgeoning area of research and employs a large number of chemistry graduates. The impact of strip tests in detecting coronavirus was palpable during the recent COVID-19 pandemic and will further drive the biosensor industry. Despite their common usage, a coherent introduction to the basics of sensing remains missing…

The Hill equation, which models the cooperative ligand-receptor binding equilibrium, turns out to be useful in modeling the progression of infectious disease outbreaks such as CoViD-19. The equation fits well the data for total and daily case numbers, allows tentative predictions for the half-point and end point of the epidemic, and presents a…

A laboratory experiment is described in which students carry out immobilization of the enzyme invertase via entrapment in alginate (Ca-alginate) and, accordingly, estimate values for kinetic constants and mass transfer coefficients. Immobilization of enzymes, or confinement thereof to a defined space with retention of most catalytic activity, is…

This article describes a straightforward approach to deliver an enzyme assay and kinetics laboratory via online delivery methods in the time of COVID-19.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has led to widespread lock-down strategies that force universities to perform all educational activities remotely. In this context, laboratory lessons pose a significant challenge. Here, I present an on-line tool that simulates the kinetics of chemical reactions. Enzymatic mechanisms can be easily modeled and followed…

This paper describes an undergraduate biochemistry laboratory module consisting of a set of experiments designed around a purification scheme for bovine serum albumin (BSA). Students purify BSA from cow plasma by a combination of salt and acetone precipitation, equilibrium dialysis, ion exchange, and size exclusion chromatography. Students use the…

Most biochemical transformations involve more than one substrate. Bisubstrate enzymes catalyze multiple chemical reactions in living systems and include members of the transferase, oxidoreductase, and ligase enzyme classes. Working knowledge of bisubstrate enzyme kinetic models is thus of clear importance to the practicing biochemist. However,…

"Beer Brewing: Chemical and Biochemical Principles" is a 15 week laboratory and lecture course specifically designed for nonscience majors as an introduction to science literacy via structured laboratory experiments that encourage student engagement. It provides students with a foundation in chemical and biochemical principles using a…

Enzyme kinetics is the study of enzymatic catalytic rates in biochemical reactions. This topic is commonly taught to life science students in introductory biochemistry courses during their undergraduate education. Unlike most other biochemistry topics, which focus on visual structures of biomolecules and their processes, enzyme kinetics is…

In 1972 Christian B. Anfinsen received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for "…his work on ribonuclease, especially concerning the connection between the amino acid sequence and the biologically active conformation." The understanding of this principle is crucial for physical biochemistry students, since protein folding studies, bio-computing…

Enzyme kinetics is an essential part of biochemistry programs, which have been gaining importance in recent years for their applications in biotechnology and biomedicine. The teaching and learning of these issues has been traditionally hampered by difficulties that stem mainly from the dynamic and mathematical nature of the topic and the…