As understanding how enzymes work can be very complicated - such reactions often are complex, fast and require multiple steps - the MSU team developed a new method to follow the TauD reaction. The difficult part for researchers was to slow down the reaction enough that the individual steps can be observed; one way to slow down an enzymatic reaction is to cool it.

The team used a stream of cold nitrogen gas to slow down the reaction at -36 C (-33 F). To prevent freezing and to keep the reaction going, the scientists used ethylene glycol - the same antifreeze that goes in vehicles.

Once the reaction started, the team used lasers - in an advanced method called Raman spectroscopy - to follow the vibrations of iron and oxygen atoms in TauD to determine how the reaction progressed. They found never seen before steps in the TauD reaction, overturning conventional thought.

Source: Michigan State University