Metals in biology: Past, present, and future

This chapter reviews basic concepts in metal biology and suggests a vision for the future of metals in medicine. Important developments in the field include the discovery of metallochaperones that prevent free metals from reeking havoc inside of cells. These intracellular metal ion carriers may work in conjunction with scaffold proteins or may deliver their cargo directly to metalloenzymes or metal transport proteins. Another area reviewed is the mechanism of metalloid uptake and detoxification. This leads into the future of metals in medicine, using examples from past and recent history. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.

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