Development of the Michaelis-Menten equation

Measuring Biochemical Reactions:
Development of the Michaelis-Menten equation

All biochemists have used the famous Michaelis-Menten equation, the global standard for quantifying the rate of biochemical reactions. However, not as many people know the pioneering Canadian scientist who was instrumental to its development.

Maud Leonora Menten was born in Port Lambton, Ontario and graduated from the University of Toronto in 1904. Passionate about her studies at a time when female scientists weren’t yet accepted, Menten continued on to receive her medical doctorate degree in 1911, making her among the first women in Canada to do so.

Shortly thereafter, Menten moved to the University of Berlin to work with Leonor Michaelis. Together, the two were able to derive the equation to which they each gave their name, which described the rate of an enzymatic reaction:

In the model, V represents the rate of product formation, which is some fraction of Vmax, the fastest possible rate at which the reaction can occur. The value of V depends on [S], the substrate concentration (or amount of reactant present), and the Michaelis constant, Km, which is the substrate concentration at which the reaction proceeds at half its maximum rate. Km can also be thought of as a measure of how eager the substrate and enzyme (or biological catalyst) are to bind to one another: the lower the value, the higher the affinity, and subsequently the faster the product formation.

Although other models for enzymatic reaction kinetics have since been developed, the Michaelis-Menten equation remains the most widely used and can still be found in all biochemistry, physical chemistry, and molecular biology text books. Over 50 years after her death, Maud Leonora Menten remains one of the key figures in the biological and chemical sciences.