Issue dedicated to the area of Bioinorganic Chemistry

In the 70's decade Prof. Ei-Ichiro-Ochiai wrote an introductory book on Bioinorganic Chemistry, emphasizing that although the term "inorganic" signifies "not related to organism", at that time there were some findings indicating that the so called inorganic elements and its compounds played an important role in living organisms. At that time Prof. Williams wrote the book The metals of life. Biochemists and inorganic chemists began to identify the relevance of metal compounds in some of the most important biological processes in several organisms.

The study of biochemical functions with more precise analytical techniques allows the identification of metals in proteins and enzymes. Furthermore it was identified that prosthetic groups in proteins were coordination compounds such as, the iron porphyrine in hemoglobin. Another important area in bioinorganic chemistry is Metals in Medicine, after the discovery of cytotoxicity activity of the Cis-dichloro, diamine platinum (II) compound and its uses as an antineoplastic drug.

The present issue is dedicated to this field of chemistry, especially in this year that every coordination chemists celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Nobel Prize awarded to Alfred Werner for the establishment of the bases of coordination chemistry. The content of the present issue reflects the appeal of the field, since it brought together a review on DNA/ metallic compounds covering from experimental to theoretical approaches plus 11 articles, contributed from recognized authors from 8 countries, covering a number of specialties such as biomimetic compounds, coordination compounds with several biological activities, anticancer, antiparasitaries, antidiabetics drugs and several other topics related to medicinal inorganic chemistry.

Prof. Juvencio Robles
Prof. Lena Ruiz Azuara