Model studies, bioinorganic

COj or HCOj". From a bioinorganic viewpoint several interesting questions arise that may be approachable using model studies, including 1) How does the protein differentiate the two binding sites and 2) Can one devise a model system for which Fe affinity can be drastically altered by coordination of synergistic anion as is the case for LT ... 

Some copper-containing complexes are studied as models for bioinorganic systems (see Chapter 28). 

As the above discussion indicates, assigning mechanisms to simple anation reactions of transition metal complexes is not simple. The situation becomes even more difficult for a complex enzyme system containing a metal cofactor at an active site. Methods developed to study the kinetics of enzymatic reactions according to the Michaelis-Menten model will be discussed in Section 2.2.4. Since enzyme-catalyzed reactions are usually very fast, experimentahsts have developed rapid kinetic techniques to study them. Techniques used by bioinorganic chemists to study reaction rates will be further detailed in Section 3.7.2.1 and 3.72.2. 

Kenneth Suslick has written several pertinent statements about the study of metalloproteins and their model compounds. This paradigm will guide the study of the varied bioinorganic systems described in this chapter. Additions to Suslick s statement in point 2 stress the importance of modern structural analysis (X-ray crystallography, EXAFS, EPR, and two- and three-dimensional high-held NMR) of the purihed metalloproteins and their model compounds. As paraphrased from reference 19, the following statements outline the steps involved in the study of metalloproteins ... 

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