One goal of this textbook is to provide the reader with an orderly development of steady state enzyme kinetics from the early formulations, through analysis of the reaction sequence of multi-reactant enzymes, to the analysis of non-hyperbolic enzyme kinetics, and finally to the control of multi-enzyme systems. The material included in this book has formed the basis of lectures on enzyme kinetics which have been given as a portion of a course on enzyme chemistry. It is hoped that it will be useful not only to the reader who is enrolled in a formal course in enzyme kinetics or enzyme chemistry, but also to readers who wish to familiarize themselves with enzyme kinetics in a self-study program, and also to the readers who wish to review the principles of steady state enzyme kinetics.

The book contains numerous equations, but neither the equations nor the derivations of the equations constitute the primary objective. Rather, it is crucial that the information contained in an equation be correlated correctly with the kinetic behavior of the enzyme. Hence, it is the kinetic behavior of the enzyme which mandates the structure of the rate equation. The task which is presented to the enzyme kineticist is to visualize the enzyme model which is consistent with the rate equation.

The reader will note that there are few references to individual enzymes in this textbook. A deliberate objective has been to present the fundamentals of enzyme kinetics in general terms rather than in terms of specific enzymes.