This research award in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organometallic Chemistry program supports work by Professor R. H. Holm at Harvard University to carry out fundamental studies of biologically related chemistry of molybdenum and tungsten. These elements are essential components of enzymes that catalyze reactions essential to the life of organisms throughout the evolutionary scale, including humans. Molybdenum is an essential human nutrient and is required in the functioning of enzymes that are involved in diseases including gout and the effects of cardiac failure. Further, its deficiency is related to neurological abnormalities and mental retardation. Molybdenum and tungsten enzymes are also implicated in global cycles that process, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, arsenic, and selenium. The overall purpose of this research is to develop and interpret molecular chemical systems that bear directly on the natural behavior of molybdenum and tungsten as expressed by physiological reactions of enzymes that contain these elements. The proposed research represents an opportunity for scientific advancement in biologically related inorganic chemistry and a means of educating students (undergraduates and postdoctoral scholars) in experimental techniques and theoretical ideas in this field. The process involves research, seminars, and critical discussion. This laboratory is open to undergraduate students who wish to work in the bioinorganic area. The principal investigator is a frequent lecturer in outside venues. The sum of these activities is considered a contribution to the education of present and future scientific manpower. This research contributes to a better understanding of the occurrence, kinetics, and mechanism of oxygen atom transfer reactions, in which an oxygen atom is moved from one molecule to another; such reactions are the primary function of molybdenum-, tungsten-, and certain iron-containing enzymes and of many oxidation catalysts employed in chemical synthesis.
