Enzymes are biological catalysts whose function is to accelerate the rate of biochemical reactions that constitute essentially every cellular process, without altering the reaction's thermodynamic endpoint. They achieve this acceleration through a small set of general catalytic strategies: **acid/base catalysis**, in which the enzyme acts as a proton donor or acceptor to facilitate proton transfer; **covalent catalysis**, in which the enzyme forms a transient covalent bond with the substrate and serves as an electron sink; **electrostatic catalysis**, in which charged groups or bound metal cations stabilize charge on substrates and transition states; and **proximity and orientation effects**, in which binding raises the effective frequency of productive collisions by holding reactants close together and in the correct spatial alignment. This concept belongs to biochemistry and enzymology, connecting chemical kinetics and organic reaction mechanism to the operation of cellular machinery.
Enzymes are biological catalysts whose function is to accelerate the rate of biochemical reactions that constitute essentially every cellular process, without altering the reaction's thermodynamic en…