title: Enabling the chemistry of life.
abstract: Enzymes are the subset of proteins that catalyse the chemistry of life, transforming both macromolecular substrates and small molecules. The precise three-dimensional architecture of enzymes permits almost unerring selectivity in physical and chemical steps to impose remarkable rate accelerations and specificity in product-determining reactions. Many enzymes are members of families that carry out related chemical transformations and offer opportunities for directed in vitro evolution, to tailor catalytic properties to particular functions.
authors.affiliation: Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology Department, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Walsh
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D002384:Catalysis; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000378:metabolism; D004798:Enzymes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D018716:Molecular Mimicry
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D004798:Enzymes