View source for Metal ions and metalloproteins

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Metal ions are essential nutrients for all organisms and play important roles in many biochemical processes. The diverse network of proteins and enzymes involved in intra- and inter-cellular metal trafficking pathways is very complex but highly specific and tightly regulated. Abnormal cellular metal ion concentrations may lead to oxidative damage (particularly for redox-active metals such as Cu and Fe), various diseases and cell death.  While many aspects of metal-ions trafficking have been addressed by biochemists and cell biologists, chemists provide yet another layer of information that is crucial to a better understanding of these transport pathways, whether it is related to metal-ions specificity, affinity, kinetics and thermodynamics. Understanding the molecular and mechanistic details of metalloenzymes and the processes they undergo opens up opportunities for metal-ion chelation, detoxification, anti-tumor and anti-cancer therapies.  This symposium will address various aspects of metal ion homeostasis and discuss structure-function relationships of a number of metal-ion binding, transport and storage proteins and processes.

==Organizer==
[[File:BouAbdallah.jpg|120px|left]]
'''[http://www2.potsdam.edu/bouabdf/ Dr. Fadi Bou-Abdallah]''' is an assistant professor of chemistry at SUNY Potsdam. He obtained a BS in chemistry from the Lebanese University (in Lebanon) and a PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Paris VI (France).  Prior to joining SUNY Potsdam, he was a Research Scientist at the University of New Hamsphire where he did his postdoctoral work on the iron storage protein, ferritin.  His research interests are in the areas of iron-protein biochemistry in particular proteins involved in the metabolism of iron, i.e. ferritin and transferrin.  The overall goal of his research program is to elucidate the structure-function relationships in these and other metal-ion trafficking proteins and their mechanisms of interaction with various metal-ions.




==Confirmed speakers==
*[http://xbeams.chem.yale.edu/~valentine Prof. Ann M. Valentine], (Yale University): Nicatransferrin and Serum Ti(IV) Transport
*[http://www.chem.duke.edu/~alc/labgroup/crumbliss.html Prof. Al Crumbliss] (Duke University): Iron Transport in Bacteria
*[http://www.smbs.buffalo.edu/bch/Labs/Kosman/index.htm Prof. Dan Kosman]: (University of Buffalo): Multicopper Ferroxidases: A Workshop on Copper Coordination Chemistry, Electron Transfer and Metallophysiology  
*[http://www.dartmouth.edu/~chem/faculty/dew.html Prof. Dean Wilcox]: (Dartmouth College): Thermodynamics of Metal-Protein Interactions
*[http://www.medicine.mcgill.ca/physio/staffpages/pponka.htm Prof. Prem Ponka], (McGill University): The Biochemistry of Iron Metabolism

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