How enzymes are able to catalyze reactions

Fireflies, 1760

Richard Brookes, 1721–1763

Over the past 3 lessons, the students have focused on how enzymes are able to catalyze reactions.

First, the students learned about chemiluminescence and conducted a glow-in-the-dark reaction as an analogous reaction to the firefly luciferase reaction. The students looked at the structure of firefly luciferase to better understand the 3 steps of enzyme catalysis. The students also discussed how protein motion and flexibility plays a role in catalysis through a molecular dynamics simulation of another enzyme – dihydrofolate reductase.