The revised and expanded second edition of Biological Inorganic Chemistry, winner of a 2013 Texty Award from the Text and Academic Authors Association, presents an introduction to this exciting and dynamic field. An increasing understanding of the importance of metals in biology, the environment and medicine, and the multiple roles of metal ions in biological systems, has given rise to biological inorganic chemistry as a field of study.
The book begins with an overview of the concepts, both chemical and biological, required for the detailed analysis which follows. Pathways of metal assimilation, storage and transport, as well as metal homeostasis, are dealt with next. Thereafter, individual chapters discuss the roles of sodium and potassium, magnesium, calcium, zinc, iron, copper, nickel and cobalt, manganese, and finally molybdenum, vanadium, tungsten, chromium and selected non-metals. The final five chapters provide a tantalizing view of the roles of metals in brain function, biomineralization, and a brief illustration of their importance in both medicine and the environment.