This book focuses on recent topics in metallomics a study of the metallome or
metal-containing biomolecules. Metals can induce various physiological and toxicological
effects in a very small amounts in other words the concentrations of biometals are very low
in organisms. Thus analytical techniques for a trace amount of metal are crucial to understand
the biological and toxicological functions of metals.This volume begins with an overview of
metallomics including the history and development of the field. Subsequent parts provide basic
and advanced techniques for metallomics. Speciation and imaging of metals are basic approaches
to reveal the function of the metallome. The applications of speciation using an HPLC
hyphenated with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LC-ICP-MS) and flow cytometry
ICP-MS are described. As advanced approaches the applications using a micro-flow
injection-ICP-MS an ICP-triple quadrupole mass spectrometer an ICP-sector field mass
spectrometer and an ICP-multi-collector mass spectrometer are mentioned. For the imaging of
metals basic principles and applications of several techniques such as scanning X-ray
fluorescence microscopy and ICP-MS equipped with laser ablation (LA-ICP-MS) are presented.
Speciation analyses using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) X-ray Absorption
Spectroscopy (XAS) and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) are also introduced. The
last part highlights the medical and pharmaceutical applications of metallomics. Molecular
biological approaches to reveal the effects of toxic metals metal functions in brain and
neurodegenerative diseases and metallodrugs are explained. The topic of metal transporters is
also presented.
