Abstract 3054 Illuminating Extracellular Metal Dynamics: From Tool Development to Discovery

The biochemistry performed by a metal ion is influenced by the context in which it resides: these include its oxidation state, its surrounding ligands, and its water accessibility. Thus, understanding and discovering the various roles of metals in biology and implications in diseases requires characterization of biological metals not only by its total amounts, but also by its structural properties and reactivity. The rise in tools for monitoring metal ions in living systems in this manner have illuminated the diversity in metal speciation in biology; but many of these tools are focused on probing metals in the intracellular space.