Metallobiomolecules. The basis of life, the challenge of atomic spectroscopy

An outline of recent advances in metalloproteomics (structural and functional characterization of metal-binding proteins and their structural metal-binding moieties) and metallomics (characterization of the entirety of metal and metalloid species within a cell or tissue type) is presented. ICP-MS allows the specific detection of heteroelements after separation using techniques traditionally associated with biochemistry, such as gel electrophoresis or capillary chromatography. The element specificity, independence of matrix effects, and wide linear range make ICP-MS an attractive,complementary technique to ESI/MALDI-MS for the analysis of sulfur-, selenium- and phosphorus-containing proteins, metal-complexes with nucleic acids, carbohydrates and proteins, and metal-tagged biomolecules in general.