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Metabolic Flux Bottleneck — Rate-Limiting Enzyme Simulator

Interactive rate-limiting-enzyme simulator: adjust enzyme activity across a five-step metabolic pathway and watch metabolites pile up at whichever step is currently the flux bottleneck, while overall pathway output tracks only that step.

Medicine & Biophysics3DModerate60 FPS

A metabolic pathway is a chain of sequential enzyme-catalyzed reactions. This simulator visualizes five such steps as connected reaction chambers with metabolite particles flowing between them. Each chamber's enzyme activity is independently adjustable; the overall rate at which the pathway produces final product is governed entirely by whichever single step is currently slowest. Adjust the sliders to find the bottleneck and watch how boosting the wrong enzyme changes almost nothing, while boosting the right one changes everything — until a new bottleneck takes over.

⚙ Under the hood

Adjust enzyme activity across a five-step metabolic pathway and watch metabolites pile up before whichever step is currently the flux bottleneck. Overall pathway output tracks only the slowest enzyme — boosting any other step barely moves the needle.

MetabolomicsEnzyme KineticsRate-Limiting StepMetabolic PathwayFlux ControlBiochemistry

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install