DIY Glycolysis

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The Task Ahead

In the transformation of glucose to lactate the hexose is split into two halves and the atoms are rearranged. The empirical formulae of glucose and lactic acid are;

So it's possible to make two moles of lactic acid from one mole of glucose with no net addition or removal of atoms.

Although lactic acid has the right empirical formula for a monosacharide carbon 1 is more oxidised and carbon 3 is less oxidised than the closest monosacharide - glyceraldehyde. So you need to split glucose into two three carbon monosacharides and then rearrange.

Glyceraldehyde Lactate