ENZYMES: Catalysis, Kinetics and Mechanisms

Dr. Narayan S. Punekar currently holds a Visiting Professor position and is also the Dean Academic Programs, at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Dharwad, Karnataka, India. He superannuated in December 2021 from the Professorship and as a Biology faculty at IIT Bombay, Mumbai, India.   The author obtained his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, in the year 1984 and subsequently worked as postdoctoral fellow at the Enzyme Institute, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA, till 1987. After a short stint as Senior Research Scientist at Hoechst Research Centre, Mumbai, he joined IIT Bombay as Assistant Professor in 1988 and subsequently became a full Professor in 2001. He possesses more than 30 years of experience in teaching Biochemistry and Enzymology at IIT Bombay.   The major research interests of Dr. Punekar lie in biochemistry and molecular enzymology, microbial metabolism and regulation, understanding metabolism through biochemical and recombinant DNA techniques, and fungal molecular genetics and its applications to metabolic engineering. He has published over 70 papers in peer-reviewed journals and has 4 patents to his credit. He enjoys teaching Enzymology and Industrial Microbiology, for which he received the “Excellence in Teaching Award” at IIT Bombay in the years 2000, 2012 and 2018 and also the “Research Dissemination Award - 2018”.   Dr. Punekar is associated with various societies and committees of Government of India as an expert member. He also serves on the editorial board of some international journals.

1. Enzymes -Their place in Biology.- 2. Enzymes - Historical aspects.- 3. Hallmarks of an enzyme catalyst.- 4. Origins of enzyme catalytic power.- 5. Which enzyme uses what tricks?.- 6. Structure and catalysis: Conformational flexibility and protein motion.- 7. On enzyme nomenclature and classification.- 8. Chemical Kinetics: Fundamentals.- 9. Concepts of equilibrium and steady state.- 10. ES Complex and Pre-steady-state Kinetics.- 11. Principles of Enzyme Assays.- 12. Good Kinetic Practices.- 13. Quantification of Catalysis and Measures of Enzyme Purity.- 14. Henri-Michaelis-Menten Equation.- 15. More Complex Rate Expressions.- 16. Enzyme Kinetic Data: Collection and Analysis.- 17. Approaches to Kinetic Mechanism: An Overview.- 18. Analysis of Initial Velocity Patterns.- 19. Enzyme Inhibition Analyses.- 20. Irreversible Inhibitions.- 21. Reversible Inhibitions.- 22. Alternate Substrate (Product) Interactions.- 23. pH Studies with Enzymes.- 24. Isotopes in Enzymology.- 25. Isotope Effects in Enzymology.- 26. From Kinetic Data to Mechanism and Back.- 27. Chemical Reactivity and Molecular Interactions.- 28. Acid-Base Chemistry and Catalysis.- 29. Nucleophilic Catalysis and Covalent Reaction Intermediates.- 30. Phosphoryl Group Chemistry and Importance of ATP.- 31. Enzymatic Oxidation-Reduction Reactions.- 32. Carboxylations and Decarboxylations.- 33. Electrophilic Catalysis and Amino Acid Transformations.- 34. Free Radicals and radical enzymology.- 35. Integrating Kinetic and Chemical Mechanisms: A Synthesis.- 36. Enzyme Inhibitor Design: Drug Discovery.- 37. Exploiting enzymes: Technology and applications.- 38. Regulation of Enzyme Activity.- 39. In Vitro Versus In Vivo: Concepts and Consequences.- 40. Future of Enzymology: An Appraisal.