ABSTRACT
Chemical kinetics are fundamental to understanding biochemical and enzymatic reactions in living systems, and ideas from chemical kinetics have been widely used to describe interactions between other biological agents, such as infection of healthy cells by virions. Similar discussions of this topic can be found in other textbooks, such as Keener and Sneyd or Nelson and Cox. Of central importance is the law of mass action, which essentially states that two chemical species react at a rate proportional to their concentration. Many proteins bind multiple ligands, and it is often the case that the binding of one ligand modifies the kinetics of further binding. Each hemoglobin molecule is made up of four subunits, each of which can bind one molecule of oxygen. In 1965, Monod, Wyman, and Changeux proposed a model (MWC model) for cooperative binding of ligands to protein, with hemoglobin principally in mind.
