Over the past half-century, the field of Bioinorganic chemistry, like so many branches of science, has been dominated by a reductionist approach to studying metal ions in biology. This incredibly successful strategy typically involved, and involves, isolating and characterizing individual metalloproteins. Although early researchers could imagine the complexity of the processes that involved these proteins, operating within cells, comprehending such processes on the systems level was simply out of reach. However, with the technical advances that have emerged over the past decade or so, considering such complex cellular-level interrelationships is becoming increasingly possible. This volume, entitled “Methods in Systems Bioinorganic Chemistry” is perhaps the first compilation of methods aimed at understanding high-level properties involving metals in biology founded on molecular or mechanistic level interactions. The importance of this cannot be overstated;
establishing the roles of metal ions in human health and disease will undoubtedly require systems-level understandings. That being said, there is currently no established “tool kit” for studying bioinorganic systems, and so the methods included here span a diverse range of topics and approaches, from imaging to proteomics, from metals-in-mice to mathematical modeling. How these methods will eventually be integrated to advance systems-level insights is unfolding here and now. Enjoy!
- Metal ion imaging and trafficking
- metalloproteomics
- Mathematical modeling of metals in biology
