418 كيم

Course Syllabus

Introduction to Bioinorganic Chemistry

• Elemental distribution in the Earth's crust versus living organisms.
• Essential trace elements vs. toxic elements.
• Hard-Soft Acid-Base (HSAB) principle and its application in biological ligand selection.

Cellular Regulation of Metal Ions

• Mechanisms of metal uptake, transport, and storage (e.g., ferritin and transferrin for iron).
• Ion pumps and transport channels (such as the Na⁺/K⁺ ATPase pump and calcium channels).

Dioxygen Carriers and Transport Proteins

• Heme chemistry: Hemoglobin, Myoglobin, and the mechanism of cooperative binding.
• Non-heme proteins: Hemocyanin (copper-based) and Hemerythrin.

Biocatalysis and Electron Transfer

• Cytochromes.
• Iron-Sulfur clusters (Fe-S) like Ferredoxins.
• Blue copper proteins.

Metalloenzymes

• Zinc enzymes (Carbonic Anhydrase and Carboxypeptidase).
• Redox enzymes (Superoxide Dismutase - SOD, and Catalase).
• Biological nitrogen fixation (Nitrogenase) and bio-inspired hydrogenase mimics for green energy.

Medicinal Inorganic Chemistry

• Metal-based chemotherapy (Cisplatin and its derivatives).
• Diagnostic contrast agents (such as Gadolinium complexes for MRI and Technetium isotopes).
• Chelation therapy for treating heavy metal poisoning (e.g., Lead and Mercury).