Determining Enzyme Specificity in chemical reactions
Introduction
Enzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions by speeding up the rate of the reaction and are usually named for the substrates they work on most with –ase suffix e.g. Substrate- Lactose, Enzyme- Lactase. Every reaction requires activation energy to begin and without the aid of enzymes chemical reactions require high levels of activation energy and would be too slow to support life within cells. Since every chemical reaction that occurs in the cell produces a chain reaction that triggers other reactions enzymes help set a pace that makes things flow at a rate that ensures all reactions are timely and therefore do not hinder other progressive reactions. However, in order to ensure that there is no confusion within the cell, DNA provides the coding for each enzyme with a specific active site onto which only one or two particular substrates can attach. Based on this information it was hypothesized that Lactose is the specific enzyme for Lactose. In this experiment the enzyme Lactase was used on the substrates Lactose and Maltose to find out which of the two it would catalyze in the production of Glucose a molecule common in both substrates.

Materials and Methods
Two microfuge tubes one labeled Lactose, and the other Maltose. Using a clean plastic pipette 500ul of Milk (the source of the substrate Lactose) was added into the Lactose microfuge tube up to the 0.5 line and using another clean plastic pipette 500ul of Maltose solution was added to the Maltose microfuge tube up to the 0.5 line. Lactase solution (the enzyme) was added to both microfuge tube up to the 1.0 lines and each tube contained 1.0ml of mixture. Both microfuge tubes were placed in a 40 C water bath and were incubated for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes glucose test strips were placed one in each tube for one second,