Chemical Reaction Kinetics: Mathematical Underpinnings

Synopsis

Mathematical modeling and simulation of biochemical reaction networks facilitates our understanding of metabolic and signaling processes. For closed, well-mixed reaction systems, it is straightforward to derive kinetic equations that govern the concentrations of the reactants and products. The usual way of deriving kinetic equations involves application of the principle of conservation of mass in conjunction with the law of mass action. Here, examples of kinetic models for several basic processes are discussed.

Introduction

A century has passed since Michaelis and Menten described a mechanism for enzyme- mediated conversion of a substrate into a product. The kinetics of such biochemical reaction processes can be analyzed mathematically and simulated on computers, usually by appealing to the law of mass action. Kinetic models are typically presented as systems of differential equations (DEs) or continuous time Markov chains (“Mathematical Models in the Sciences”). There are...