Illustration of a computer modeling program being used to study the structure of an enzyme’s active site and its substrate. Knowing the structure of an active site aids the design of drugs to either block or enhance the enzyme’s action. Biochemists study the pockets in our body’s enzymes (proteins) where molecules bind to carry out important functions—like signaling and energy production. Studying an enzyme’s binding pocket is a key method to drug design, to design drugs which can either block a signal, or enhance it. Computational methods can compare similar proteins across many species to speed the drug design process, and to determine the amino acids that are important both functionally and evolutionarily. Originally created for Lehigh University.