Enzymes are biological catalysts made of proteins that speed up chemical reactions by lowering their activation energy. They do this by binding to substrate molecules and forcing them into an unstable transition state configuration. The enzyme remains unchanged after the reaction. Kinetics studies are used to determine reaction mechanisms, such as the Michaelis-Menten model which shows how reaction rate varies with substrate concentration. Enzyme activity can be inhibited competitively by inhibitors that block the substrate from binding the active site, or noncompetitively by inhibitors that bind elsewhere and alter the active site configuration.