A glimpse of enzymology within the idea of systems

Next year will mark the 100th anniversary of the Michaelis- Menten equation [1], one of the most important and well known models in enzymology. Remarkable progress in en- zymology over the past hundred years has not only provided deep insight into biological processes, but also has dramati- cally changed our lives. However, because of limitations in available techniques, enzymologists primarily investigate the in vitro properties and catalytic mechanisms of individ- ual enzymes. Thus, they often fail to address a fundamental scientific question： how a~e biological processes, most of which are chemical reactions catalyzed by enzymes, coor- dinated in space and time to produce a livin~ organism ｜2]？