Chapter 7 - Immobilized enzyme reactors in liquid chromatography: On-line bioreactors for use in synthesis and drug discovery

This chapter describes immobilized enzyme reactors in liquid chromatography. Enzymes are a class of biopolymers that mediate a variety of in vivo processes, including oxidative and conjugative transformations and intracellular signaling pathways. Enzymes are complex proteins that accelerate the chemical transformation of a substrate into a product. The catalyzed reactions proceed through the formation of enzyme–substrate complexes, which lower the kinetic and energetic barriers associated with the chemical transformation. This process is often described in terms of Michaelis–Menten kinetics. The Michaelis–Menten theory of enzyme kinetics assumes that enzymatic reactions are multiple-step processes. The simplest form of this mechanism is outlined in the chapter where E is the enzyme, S is the substrate, [ES] is the enzyme–substrate complex, and P is the product. The Michaelis–Menten approach also defines the velocity of the enzymatic conversion and these two constants are used to describe the enzyme–substrate interaction.