Term | Definition |
Activation Energy | In chemistry, activation energy is a term introduced in 1889 by the Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius to describe the minimum energy which must be available to a chemical system with potential reactants to result in a chemical reaction. |
Biochemical Reaction | A biochemical reaction is the transformation of one molecule to a different molecule inside a cell. Biochemical reactions are mediated by enzymes, which are biological catalysts that can alter the rate and specificity of chemical reactions inside cells. |
Coenzyme | a nonprotein compound that is necessary for the functioning of an enzyme. |
Competitive Inhibitor | a form of enzyme inhibition where binding of the inhibitor to the active site on the enzyme prevents binding of the substrate and vice versa. Most competitive inhibitors function by binding reversibly to the active site of the enzyme |
Enzyme | Enzymes are biological molecules (proteins) that act as catalysts and help complex reactions occur everywhere in life. |
Enzyme activity | Enzyme activity is a measure of the quantity of active enzyme present and is thus dependent on conditions, which should be specified. |
Enzyme concentration | In order to study the effect of increasing the enzyme concentration upon the reaction rate, the substrate must be present in an excess amount; i.e., the reaction must be independent of the substrate concentration. |
heavy metal | any metallic chemical element that has a relatively high density and is toxic or poisonous at low concentrations. |
induced fit model | A proposed mechanism of interaction between an enzyme and a substrate. It postulates that exposure of an enzyme to a substrate causes the active site of the enzyme to change shape in order to allow the enzyme and substrate to bind |
metabolism | a term that is used to describe all chemical reactions involved in maintaining the living state of the cells and the organism. |
non-competitive inhibitor | Non-competitive inhibition is a type of enzyme inhibition where the inhibitor reduces the activity of the enzyme and binds equally well to the enzyme whether or not it has already bound the substrate. |
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pH | pH is a logarithmic measure of hydrogen ion concentration, originally defined by Danish biochemist Søren Peter Lauritz Sørensen in 1909 |
Substrate | the material upon which an enzyme acts |
substrate concentration | The rate of reaction when the enzyme is saturated with substrate is the maximum rate of reaction, Vmax. The relationship between rate of reaction and concentration of substrate depends on the affinity of the enzyme for its substrate. |
thyroid | an endocrine gland in the human body |
thyroxin | a hormone sectreted by the thyroid gland |
vitimans | an organic compound that is essential for the normal growth and metabolic processes of an organism. |