Support for the 3rd Penn State Bioinorganic Workshop and the 3rd "Frontiers in Metallobiochemistry" Symposium, May 28 - June 4, 2014

在活性位点含有过渡金属离子的酶可以催化生物学中一些最困难的化学反应，包括光合作用中将水氧化为二氧，将二氮还原为氨，以及未激活的碳氢键的立体特异性功能化。值得注意的是，这些反应是在环境条件下进行的。生物无机化学领域的目标是(i)详细了解这些过程，（ii）利用这种理解来设计新的生物启发催化剂。这些努力对社会来说是重要的，因为它们可能会产生可再生能源，为地球提供动力，为农业提供更便宜的肥料。生物无机化学领域是多样化的，包括各种各样的科学学科，包括遗传学、分子生物学、生物化学、生物信息学、分析化学和物理化学。许多不同的实验技术（如反应动力学、各种光谱、x射线晶体学和质谱）和理论方法（如电子结构计算和生物信息学方法）相结合来研究含金属酶的反应机制。由于这些原因，这一领域的研究通常是高度协作的。本次研讨会将培养生物无机化学领域的学生和博士后学者。培养学生、博士后学者甚至教师在这一研究领域有着悠久的传统，是一个富有成效的协作环境的重要前提。有了这个奖项，化学部门的生命过程化学项目将资助一个两年一次的培训研讨会，该研讨会由宾夕法尼亚州立大学化学系的卡斯滕·克雷布斯教授和他的同事领导。2014年的研讨会为大约150名参与者提供了培训，其中包括(i)由其专业领域的教师专家讲授16场讲座；（ii） 21种不同方法的实践培训，最多6名参与者组成的小组在2小时的时间段内（重复多达12次），由70名学生/博士后/教师专家讲授生物无机方法。本次研讨会将独特地培养下一代生物无机化学领域的研究人员。今年的研讨会比2012年的研讨会规模更大，受到了科学界的广泛欢迎。

Enzymes containing transition metal ions in their active sites catalyze some of the most difficult chemical reactions in biology, including as the oxidation of water to dioxygen in photosynthesis, the reduction of dinitrogen to ammonia, and the stereospecific functionalization of unactivated carbon-hydrogen bonds. Remarkably, these reactions proceed under ambient conditions. The area of bioinorganic chemistry aims to (i) understand these processes in detail and (ii) use this understanding to enable design of new bio-inspired catalysts. The efforts are important to society, because they may enable, for example, the generation of renewable energy to power the planet and cheaper fertilizers for agriculture. The field of bioinorganic chemistry is diverse and includes a wide variety of scientific disciplines, including genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, bioinformatics, analytical chemistry, and physical chemistry. Many different experimental techniques (e.g. reaction kinetics, a wide variety of spectroscopies, X-ray crystallography, and mass spectrometry) and theoretical methods (e.g. electronic structure calculations and bioinformatics methods) are combined to study the reaction mechanisms of enzymes containing metals. For these reasons, research in this area is generally highly collaborative. This workshop will train students and postdoctoral scholars in the area of bioinorganic chemistry. The training of students, postdoctoral scholars and even faculty has a long tradition in this research field and is an important prerequisite for a productive collaborative environment. With this award, the Chemistry of Life Processes Program in the Chemistry Division is funding a biennial training workshop, which is led by Prof. Carsten Krebs and colleagues at the Department of Chemistry at The Pennsylvania State University. The 2014 workshop provides training for approximately 150 participants and encompasses (i) 16 lectures by faculty experts in the field in their area of specialty and (ii) hands-on training in 21 different methods offered to small groups of up to 6 participants in 2-hour time-blocks (repeated up to 12 times) and taught by 70 student/postdoc/faculty experts in bioinorganic methods. This workshop will uniquely train the next generation of researchers in the field of bioinorganic chemistry. This year's workshop is even larger than the 2012 workshop, which was received with broad enthusiasm by the scientific field.