Module 1: Principles of enzymology
1) Historical background. Nomenclature and classification of enzymes. Determination of enzyme
activity. Enzyme function, active sites, cofactors, specificity
2) The basic principles and key mechanisms of enzymatic catalysis
3) Thermodynamics and structure-catalysis relationships
Module2: Enzyme kinetics
1) The principles of enzyme kinetics and the factors affecting the catalytic activity.
2) Kinetic parameters and reaction equilibrium
3) The analysis of kinetic data, Michaelis-Menten equation and methods of plotting enzyme kinetics
data
4) Effect of pH and temperature on enzyme stability and activity.
5) The principles of enzyme inhibition, types of inhibition and the concepts of allosteric activators or
inhibitors. Reversible and irreversible inhibition (inactivation). Inhibition constants. Interaction of
enzymes and xenobiotic compounds (drugs, insecticides, herbicides, etc.)
6) Multi-substrate enzyme reactions
7) Isotopes in enzyme reaction rate determination
Module 3. Enzyme engineering
1) Molecular dynamics and mechanics, structural rearrangements and fluctuations of the enzyme
molecule
2) The principles of designing structural modifications on the enzyme molecule by applying
biocomputing methods and recombinant DNA technology
) Paleoenzymology and reconstruction of ancient enzymes. Methods for high throughput screening
of mutant enzymes
3) Molecular methods for in vitro directed and random mutagenesis. Principles and methods of in
vitro molecular evolution
4) The principles of designing new forms of enzymes with desired catalytic and structural properties
by applying evolutionary methods
5) High-throughput screening methods for enzyme selection
6) De novo design of new functional enzymes
7) Chemical modification of enzyme structure
8) Applications of engineered enzymes in agriculture, medicine, industry and environmental
technologies. Enzymes for molecular biology (structure, mechanism, applications)
9) Hybrid enzymes, semisynthetic enzymes, artificial enzymes, catalytic antibodies and ribozymes
10) Enzyme nanomachines and multi-complex enzymes
Module 4: Enzyme applications
1) Εnzymes that recognize and modify nucleic acids
2) Enzymes as molecular targets for drug design
3) Enzymes as body’s defense systems against xenobiotic compounds (oxygenases, transferases,
hydrolases, etc.)
1) Ιωάννης Κλώνης (2007) Ενζυμολογία, Έμβρυο.
2) Yon-Kahn, Jeannine, Hervé, G. (2010) Molecular and Cellular Enzymology. Springer USA.
3) Hans Bisswanger (2011) Practical Enzymology, 2nd Edition, Wiley-Blackwell.
4) Sheldon J. Park, Jennifer R. Cochran (2010) Protein Engineering and Design. Taylor and Francis
Group.
5) Stefan Lutz, Uwe T. Bornscheuer (2011) Protein Engineering Handbook, Volume 1 & Volume 2,
Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.
