Publisher's Synopsis
This volume describes the roles that metals play throughout biology. Metals are involved in most aspects of the chemistry of life, including respiration, numerous steps of metabolism, photosynthesis, nitrogen fixation, nerve transmission, signal transduction, muscle contraction, oxygen transport, and protection from xenobiotic compounds. In addition, metals are used in medicine as therapeutic agents. In twelve chapters, several of the best-known experts in their specialties explain the participation of metals in a variety of biological functions while teaching principles of chemistry and offering perspectives on the future of research in bioinorganic chemistry.
Although an ideal text for upper-level undergraduates, graduate students, and their teachers, this book also offers enlightening reading to chemists, biochemists, and biological scientists who specialize in other fields but want to know what is happening in contemporary bioinorganic chemistry research. The topics covered include how bacteria rid themselves of potentially toxic metals, the biological and chemical aspects of metalloproteins involved in oxygen transport, the use of metal-containing drugs in treating various types of cancer, and the basics of biological electron transfer reactions.
The contributors are Barry P. Rosen, Susan M. Miller, Eric D. Coulter, Issa S. Isaac, John H. Dawson, Stephen G. Sligar, Donald M. Kurtz, Jr., A. Grant Mauk, Russ Hille, E. Neil,G. Marsh, James W. Whittaker, Joan B. Broderick, Elizabeth E. Trimmer, and John M. Essigmann.
