Action studies concerning structure

Catalytic antibodies are, so far, among the most efficient artificial enzyme mimics. Although, in general, they do not exhibit enzyme-like rates, mechanistic and structural studies concerning catalysis offer deeper insight in the mechanism of action of natural enzymes. 

This section is concerned with how structural information about liquid crystal phases may be obtained from X-ray di action studies. In addition to presenting a brief overview of some of the more quantitative aspects, we will also attempt to give a simple pictorial view of how diffraction patterns may be analyzed qualitatively in terms of the mesophase structures. For the background X-ray diffraction theory relevant to partially-ordered systems, a number of classical texts should be consulted [1-3]. 

Kinetics is the branch of science concerned with the rates of chemical reactions. The study of enzyme kinetics addresses the biological roles of enzymatic catalysts and how they accomplish their remarkable feats. In enzyme kinetics, we seek to determine the maximum reaction velocity that the enzyme can attain and its binding affinities for substrates and inhibitors. Coupled with studies on the structure and chemistry of the enzyme, analysis of the enzymatic rate under different reaction conditions yields insights regarding the enzyme s mechanism of catalytic action. Such information is essential to an overall understanding of metabolism. 

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