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Enzymes: nature's nanomachines. Royal Irish Academy Medal Lecture

T J Mantle1

  • 1Department of Biochemistry, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland. tmantle@tcd.ie

Biochemical Society Transactions
|May 18, 2001
PubMed

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The theory of catalytically perfect enzymes was first proposed by W.J. Albery and J. R. Knowles in 1976. These enzymes catalyze biochemical reactions at high-speed. Their catalytic efficiency values range from 108-109 M-1s-1. These enzymes are also called 'diffusion-controlled' as the only rate-limiting step in the catalysis is that of the substrate diffusion into the active site. Examples include triose phosphate isomerase, fumarase, and superoxide dismutase.
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