The Bioinorganic Periodic Table

Abstract

Life depends on metals. While carbon, in terms of abundance and versatility, is considered THE element of life, the vast variety and diversity of the chemistry taking place in living organisms could not be achieved without metal ions. More than twenty metals are found in the human body, most of them being essential, some beneficial, and for others it is still unknown what role they might fulfil in a living cell. Here we give a short introduction into the bioinorganic world of the periodic table, providing just a few examples of key metals for life and aiming to give a flavour to gain further insights into this exciting field of inorganic chemistry at the intersection to the life sciences.