ENZYMES: Catalysis, Kinetics and Mechanisms

Dr. N. S. Punekar is currently working as a Professor at prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, Mumbai, India. He obtained his PhD from the coveted Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore, India in the year 1984 and subsequently worked as Post-doctoral fellow at University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA till 1988. He joined IIT Bombay as Assistant Professor in 1988 and subsequently got elevated to the rank of Professor in 2001. Dr. Punekar’s major research interest lies in Microbial Biochemistry and Molecular Enzymology; Microbial Metabolic Regulation, Understanding Metabolism through biochemical and recombinant DNA techniques, Fungal Molecular Genetics and its Applications to Metabolic Engineering. Dr. Punekar has published around 50 papers in peer reviewed reputed journals and more importantly has 4 patents to his credit. He has been an excellent teacher of Enzymology and Industrial Microbiology which is evident by the fact that he has received the “Excellence in Teaching Award” at IIT Bombay in the years 2000 and 2012. He possesses more than two decades of experience of teaching Enzymology at IIT Bombay. He is associated with various societies and committees of Government of India as an expert member. He is also in editorial board of journals like Indian Journal of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Indian Journal of Biotechnology since and Indian Journal of Experimental Biology, etc.

Part I: Enzyme catalysis - a perspective.- Enzymes -Their place in Biology.- Enzymes - Historical aspects.- Exploiting enzymes – Technology.- On enzyme nomenclature and classification.- Hallmarks of an enzyme catalyst.- Origins of enzyme catalytic power.- Origins of enzyme catalytic power.- Which enzyme uses what trick? Some remarks.- Structure and catalysis: Conformational flexibility and protein motion.- Part II: Enzyme kinetic practice and measurements.- Chemical kinetics – Fundamentals.- Concepts of equilibrium and steady-state.- ES complex and pre-steady-state kinetics.- Principles of enzyme assays.- Good kinetic practices.- Quantification of catalysis and measures of enzyme purity.- Henri-Michaelis-Menten equation.- More complex rate expressions.- Enzyme kinetic data - Collection and analysis.- Part III: Elucidation of Kinetic mechanisms.- Approaches to kinetic mechanism – Overview.- Analysis of initial velocity patterns.- Enzyme inhibition analyses.- Irreversible inhibitions.- Reversible inhibitions.- Alternate substrate (product) interactions.- pH Studies with enzymes.- Isotopes in enzymology.- Isotope exchanges at equilibrium.- Isotope effects in enzymology.- From kinetic data to mechanism and back.- Part IV: Chemical mechanisms and catalysis.- Chemical reactivity and molecular interactions.- Acid-base chemistry and catalysis.- Nucleophilic catalysis and covalent reaction intermediates.- Phosphoryl group chemistry and importance of ATP.-  Enzymatic oxidation-reduction reactions.- Carboxylations and decarboxylations.- Electrophilic catalysis and amino acid transformations.- Integrating kinetic and chemical mechanisms – A synthesis.- Part V: Frontiers in enzymology.- Regulation of enzyme activity.- In vitro versus in vivo - Concept and consequences.- Future of enzymology – An appraisal.- Closure - Whither Enzymology.