Inorganic Chemistry in Biology

Abstract Several inorganic chemical elements play fundamental roles in biological processes. The contribution of inorganic chemistry to the understanding of biological processes is presented here from a historical perspective: from the first discoveries of metal ions in living organisms to the modern approaches of inorganic structural biology and bioinformatics, through the characterization of metal binding sites in proteins and in biomimetic model compounds. Definitions are provided for the fundamental concepts of metal cofactor, metalloprotein, and metalloenzyme.