Bioinorganic chemistry

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The bioinorganic chemistry is an interdisciplinary research field of chemistry. The aim of bioinorganic chemistry is to elucidate the function of classic inorganic elements, such as metals , but also "inorganic" non-metals such as iodine (e.g. in thyroxine and triiodothyronine ) or selenium (e.g. selenocysteine ) in life processes.

In living organisms, metals usually appear in the active centers of proteins ( enzymes ). These metals are essential for the function of the enzymes. A metal exchange leads to a loss or a change in function. Metalloproteins can be viewed as metal complexes with extraordinarily large ligands .

The research field of bioinorganics includes, on the one hand, the investigation and structure elucidation of metalloenzymes , in which the proteins concerned are obtained through expression and further purification steps. The investigations range from the application of various physical and spectroscopic methods to X-ray diffraction experiments on protein single crystals to determine the structure. The production of proteins in monocrystalline form is one of the greatest challenges and difficulties in bioinorganic chemistry. The results of these investigations are used to gain new insights into the course of enzymatic catalysis , through which all life processes ultimately take place.

On the other hand, precisely because working with proteins is a complex, resource-intensive research area, a second branch of bioinorganic chemistry has emerged with the modeling of enzymatic systems with low-molecular coordination compounds. In this area, attempts are made to imitate spectroscopic and functional properties through systematic research into new metal complexes. In this way, findings such. B. win through the process of enzymatic catalysis, which can then be transferred to the natural model.

Some metalloproteins (metal involved, function, coordination):

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