At the end of the course the student is able to:
- identify the essential metals and trace elements in living cells and explain how acquisition, transport and storage occur.
- explain some elementary concepts of coordination complexes and their main properties as well as of oxidation/reduction chemistry, and apply them to biological systems.
- explain the roles of transition metal ions in important biological processes, namely electron transfer in the biogeochemical cycles of carbon and nitrogen, binding and activation of molecular oxygen and reactive oxygen species, hydrolysis, and controlled radical reactions.
- recognize the most important metallo-enzymes and metal-containing cofactors and coenzymes, understand how they are built up, and know their most important functions and properties.
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In the inorganic biochemistry course the role of transition metals in biology will be discussed. The lectures start with an introduction on coordination chemistry and inorganic redox reactions. Then we will look into the role of metal ions in biological electron transfer. Next metallo-proteins and metallo-enzymes are introduced, and we will investigate for which properties certain metal ions were selected for certain roles in the most important biological cycles in the course of the evolution. As many metals interact both with a protein and an organic cofactor, such as iron and porphyrin in heme proteins, or cobalt and corrin in coenzyme B12-dependent enzymes, we shall also zoom in on the structure and function of such cofactors.
Subsequently the oxygen housekeeping of aerobic organisms will be discussed. Many biological processes are coupled to the respiration cycle of aerobic organisms, and transition metal complexes are crucial for the formation, binding, transport, and activation of the life gas oxygen. Finally the metal housekeeping in living organisms and drugs containing metals will be discussed. By looking at the most important examples, we learn how metal ions are taken up, transported, stored, and disposed of by living cells, and how biominerals are formed.
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