Progress in Inorganic Chemistry Volume 38
Advisory Board JACQUELINE K. BARTON CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, PASADENA, CALIFORNIA THEODORE L. BROWN UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, URBANA, ILLINOIS JAMES P. COLLMAN STANFORD UNIVERSITY, STANFORD, CALIFORNIA F. ALBERT COTTON TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY, COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS ALAN H. COWLEY UNIVERITY OF TEXAS, AUSTIN, TEXAS RONALD J. GILLESPIE McMASTER UNIVERSITY, HAMILTON, ONTARIO, CANADA RICHARD H. HOLM HARVARD UNIVERSITY, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS KENNETH D. KARLIN THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND TOBIN J. MARKS NORVIWESTERN UNIVERSITY, EVANSTON, ILLINOIS KARL WIEGHARDT RUHR-UNIVERSITAT, BOCHUM, FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY GEOFFREY WILKINSON IMPERIAL COLLEGE, LONDON, ENGLAND
Progress in Inorganic Chemistry:
BIOINORGANIC CHEMISTRY Edited by
STEPHEN J. LIPPARD DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
VOLUME 38
AN
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Preface Work in bioinorganic chemistry has accelerated substantially since 1973, when Volume 18 of Progress in Inorganic Chemistry was published highlighting current research topics in the field. The Preface and Introduction to that volume are reprinted here as an historical benchmark by which to judge the enormous progress that has been made in the intervening 17 years. During this interval, the first International Conference on Bioinorganic Chemistry (ICBIC) was convened, and the fourth such conference was held last summer on the MIT campus. The present volume of Progress in Inorganic Chemistry was conceived in conjunction with ICBIC-4 as an opportunity to present authoritative reviews by many experts in bioinorganic chemistry who were gathering in Cambridge for the meeting. Accordingly, ali of the plenary lecturers were invited to contribute a chapter, and most graciously agreed to do so. In addition, a number of other speakers at the conference were asked to review their areas of research expertise in order to provide additional scope of coverage for this volume. The topics reviewed here touch on many aspects of current research in bioinorganic chemistry, exploring the amazing breadth of the field that ranges from solid state physics to cell biology and medicine. There are of course many subjects not covered, but from the eight chapters included the reader should be able to assess the full span of activities in what has become a forefront subject in both chemistry and biology. As witness to the latter claim one need only recall that the journal CELL recently displayed a zinc finger peptide on its cover, a debut that was hailed by many in the bioinorganic community as official recognition of the discipline by “big biology.” Although zinc finger proteins are n