Figure of enzymes meeting a substrate and forming a new product (peptide bond) Enzymes: what they are and what they do Right now, as you read this, there are billions of chemical reactions happening inside your body. Although they happen at lightning speed inside cells, when these reactions are run inside test-tubes --- in a lab instead of a body --- they happen at a snail’s pace. What explains this difference in speed? What do our cells have, that a test-tube lacks? The answer is: enzymes! Enzymes are life’s great facilitators. They create the conditions needed for biochemical reactions to happen fast. The general name that chemists use for a chemical entity that increases the speed of a reaction is a “catalyst.” Enzymes are biological catalysts--they catalyze the chemical reactions that happen inside living things. The definition of catalysis Consider a chemical reaction where a molecule A bonds with a molecule B to create a molecule A-B (A stuck to B). Under a given set of condition
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