Computational chemistry draws for first time 'interactive cartographic map' of enzymes during chemical reactions
Thursday, June 27, 2013 - 18:30
in Physics & Chemistry
Knowing how enzymes work is key to control the chemical processes involving these biological macromolecules that have countless applications in the fields of medicine and industry. Computational chemistry has enabled to draw for the first time the enzymes "cartographic map" during the catalysis process, including the moment when they are at the point of maximum energy on the way from reactants to products that takes only a femtosecond (the quadrillionth of a second). This map is also interactive in the sense that it relates the changes experienced by the molecule with the movements of the protein that contains it.