How to Solve Biologically-Inspired, Metal-Related Problems

While your Vitamin bottle label predominantly highlights the importance of the precursors to the organic cofactors that greatly expand the repertoire of reactions accessible to enzymes, the "minerals" usually reside at the bottom of the label. Metals however are equally essential and provide a playground for the investigation of unprecedented enzymatic reactions that range from light mediated oxidation of water to O₂ and H⁺ to H₂ of current interest in the green energy movement, to the reduction of N₂ to NH₃ central to the global N cycle. Such enzymes are the inspiration for chemists to invent new small molecules that can mediate multielectron processes. Metals with protein scaffolds have evolved creative ways of functionalizing unactivated C-H bonds without the need for blocking groups. They also orchestrate using self-assembly, often with the aid of proteins, shell formation of the sea creatures, generation of compasses within magnetobacteria or removal of radioactivity from the environment. These amazing biomaterials are an inspiration for designing new materials with unprecedented properties. In addition, the ability to evolve new catalytic activities from "old" metallo-enzymes or to design protein scaffolds to bind organo-metallic cofactors that can function in an aqueous environment suggest an exciting future. The large number of unusual metallo-cofactors, still being discovered, provide inspiration for chemists to generate small molecule catalysts to efficiently produce important commodity chemicals, new ways to use biomass, etc.

Cisplatin remains the most effective cancer therapeutic and provides inspiration for new ways to incorporate metals into useful therapeutics. The field of metals in biology is very broad and very exciting and attracts chemists, biochemists, biologists, material scientists, and physicists to solve the current and future problems society faces.

Please join us at the 2016 GRC in Metals in biology to find new multidisciplinary ways to solve your biologically inspired, metal-related problems.