Substrate analog

Hey kiddo! So, have you ever played with your toy cars and pretended they were real cars going on a road trip? Well, sometimes scientists do something similar when they want to understand how a specific chemical reaction works in our bodies.

They make pretend molecules that look very similar to the real ones our body uses to make all kinds of important things. These pretend molecules are called "substrate analogs".

Just like how you can imagine that your toy car is a real car, but it doesn't actually do what a real car does, substrate analogs are similar to the real molecules, but they don't actually work the same way. Scientists use these pretend molecules to study how the real molecules might work in the body.

It's just like when you pretend to cook with your toy kitchen set, you're learning how real cooking works. Scientists use substrate analogs to learn how real molecules work in the body, because they can study them more easily and safely than the real ones.

So, substrate analogs are like pretend toys that scientists use to learn how real molecules work! Cool, huh?