The facilitation of biochemical reactions with the aid of naturally occurring catalysts such as ENZYMES.
Body of knowledge related to the use of organisms, cells or cell-derived constituents for the purpose of developing products which are technically, scientifically and clinically useful. Alteration of biologic function at the molecular level (i.e., GENETIC ENGINEERING) is a central focus; laboratory methods used include TRANSFECTION and CLONING technologies, sequence and structure analysis algorithms, computer databases, and gene and protein structure function analysis and prediction.
Enzymes which are immobilized on or in a variety of water-soluble or water-insoluble matrices with little or no loss of their catalytic activity. Since they can be reused continuously, immobilized enzymes have found wide application in the industrial, medical and research fields.
The study of microorganisms such as fungi, bacteria, algae, archaea, and viruses.
"Chemical Engineering is a branch of engineering that deals with the design, construction, and operation of plants and machinery for large-scale chemical processing of raw materials into finished or partially finished products and for the disposal or recycling of byproducts."
Biological molecules that possess catalytic activity. They may occur naturally or be synthetically created. Enzymes are usually proteins, however CATALYTIC RNA and CATALYTIC DNA molecules have also been identified.
The facilitation of a chemical reaction by material (catalyst) that is not consumed by the reaction.
Elimination of ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTANTS; PESTICIDES and other waste using living organisms, usually involving intervention of environmental or sanitation engineers.
Six-carbon saturated hydrocarbon group of the methane series. Include isomers and derivatives. Various polyneuropathies are caused by hexane poisoning.
Liquids that dissolve other substances (solutes), generally solids, without any change in chemical composition, as, water containing sugar. (Grant & Hackh's Chemical Dictionary, 5th ed)
The chemical alteration of an exogenous substance by or in a biological system. The alteration may inactivate the compound or it may result in the production of an active metabolite of an inactive parent compound. The alterations may be divided into METABOLIC DETOXICATION, PHASE I and METABOLIC DETOXICATION, PHASE II.
The phenomenon whereby compounds whose molecules have the same number and kind of atoms and the same atomic arrangement, but differ in their spatial relationships. (From McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 5th ed)
Procedures by which protein structure and function are changed or created in vitro by altering existing or synthesizing new structural genes that direct the synthesis of proteins with sought-after properties. Such procedures may include the design of MOLECULAR MODELS of proteins using COMPUTER GRAPHICS or other molecular modeling techniques; site-specific mutagenesis (MUTAGENESIS, SITE-SPECIFIC) of existing genes; and DIRECTED MOLECULAR EVOLUTION techniques to create new genes.
Extensive collections, reputedly complete, of facts and data garnered from material of a specialized subject area and made available for analysis and application. The collection can be automated by various contemporary methods for retrieval. The concept should be differentiated from DATABASES, BIBLIOGRAPHIC which is restricted to collections of bibliographic references.
A species of gram-negative, facultatively anaerobic, rod-shaped bacteria (GRAM-NEGATIVE FACULTATIVELY ANAEROBIC RODS) commonly found in the lower part of the intestine of warm-blooded animals. It is usually nonpathogenic, but some strains are known to produce DIARRHEA and pyogenic infections. Pathogenic strains (virotypes) are classified by their specific pathogenic mechanisms such as toxins (ENTEROTOXIGENIC ESCHERICHIA COLI), etc.
A characteristic feature of enzyme activity in relation to the kind of substrate on which the enzyme or catalytic molecule reacts.
Proteins prepared by recombinant DNA technology.