SBIC News

On this page you will find the latest news from SBIC. We encourage you to sign up for the quarterly SBIC newsletter to stay up to date with the latest developments in the biological inorganic chemistry community. If you are an SBIC member or have an account on the page and would like to receive the newsletter, click here to opt-in. If you are not a member, but would like to receive the newsletter, please click here to register and sign up. 

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We are pleased to provide this 2024.02 edition of our quarterly newsletter published by the Society of Biological Inorganic Chemistry (SBIC), which aims to keep you up to date with important developments in our society, award deadlines and other opportunities in biological inorganic chemistry. We provide you in this newsletter with the latest information from your society, and we hope that you will continue to support or join SBIC as a new member. We would also like to invite you to pass the newsletter on to your students and colleagues and if you have news to share, please get in touch.

New SBIC Nominations Committee Membership

We welcome three new members of the SBIC Nominations Committee: Paola Turano (University of Florence), Sonja Herres-Pawlis (Aachen University), and Alejandro J. Vila (University of Rosario). We appreciate your willingness to serve our community.
We thank outgoing committee members Peter Faller (University of Strasbourg), Norah Barba-Beherns (National Autonomous University of Mexico), and Sigríður Guðrún Suman (University of Iceland) for their service.

Announcing SBIC Early Career Award Recipient, Kyle Lancaster
We are pleased to recognize Kyle Lancaster of Cornell University, the recipient of the 2024 SBIC Early Career Award.

Kyle earned his B.A. in Chemistry at Pomona College in Claremont, California, after which he enrolled at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. At Caltech he was mentored by Harry Gray and became known for his breakthrough on “Type Zero” copper sites. Kyle then moved to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, to work as a postdoctoral fellow with Serena DeBeer, where he did groundbreaking work identifying the central carbide in the nitrogenase FeMoCo.

Kyle stayed at Cornell to establish his independent career which is highlighted by outstanding breadth and depth. A major focus has been on investigations of metalloenzymes in the nitrogen cycle, and Kyle’s work has rewritten the textbooks on this topic, as he demonstrated that hydroxylamine is converted directly to nitrous oxide by the bacterial heme enzyme cytochrome P460. Furthermore, he demonstrated that hydroxylamine oxidoreductase converts nitric oxide on the way to producing nitrite. A hallmark of his work is its use of a wide range of approaches, from biochemistry, to studies of mechanism, to inorganic physical methods.

Kyle’s work has already been recognized through a number of awards including the Paul Saltman Award of the Metals in Biology Gordon Research Conference and an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship.

Look for Kyle’s award address at an upcoming ICBIC, to be announced. Congratulations, Kyle!

SBIC Early Career Researchers Committee

SBIC is pleased to announce the installation of a new committee called the Early Career Researchers (ECRs) Committee whose charge is to identify and implement opportunities to advance the career development of individuals at the beginning, or during transitionary periods, of their careers. The committee will be composed of 6 to 8 ECRs plus two members of the SBIC Council who will serve as liaisons to the committee and provide continuity. The ECRs will be selected by the president with terms that will be for one or two years. In some cases, renewal for a second term can occur at the discretion of the president. Each ECR appointed to the committee must be an SBIC member; however, one may apply for this position prior to joining the society. As with all SBIC events, we strive for full representation of our members including race, gender, region and scientific diversity.

To apply for membership on the ECR committee, please include the following documents in an email to [email protected]:

These documents should be sent as a single pdf. We have extended the deadline to apply for these positions to July 1^st at 11:59 pm UTC/GMT.

Educational Resources for SBIC Members

We encourage you to visit our educational resources webpage where we have accumulated links to important pedagogical information and lectures to aid in teaching inorganic and bioinorganic chemistry. We will be uploading new content to this area over the next year which includes for example advanced lectures on metalloprotein design. If you are an SBIC member, you also have access to members-only content which is continuously growing. Follow this link!

Congratulations

We are happy to profile the success of our SBIC members and highlight recent awards and accolades. If you have received an award or know of someone who has received recognition for their work, please email the information to Kara Bren ([email protected]). It is great to see how many bioinorganic chemists are recognized for the hard work and achievements – congratulations everyone! 

Cathy Drennan (Massachusetts Institute of Technology): Inducted into the U.S. National Academy of Sciences

Johannes Karges (Ruhr-Universität Bochum): Paul-Ehrlich-und-Ludwig-Darmstaedter-Nachwuchspreis 2024, awarded by the Paul Ehrlich Foundation

Lisa Olshansky (University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne): 2024 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar

Diane Xiao (University of Washington): 2024 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar and 2024 U.S. Department of Energy Early Career Award

Yang Yang (University of California, Santa Barbara) 2023 Fellowship for Science and Engineering from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation and the 2024 Sloan Fellowship

Daniel Suess (Massachusetts Institute of Technology): 2024 Inorganic Chemistry Lectureship

Hongzhe Sun (Hong Kong University): HKU Innovator Award 2023

Highlighting Women Bioinorganic Chemists in France

SBIC is very much aware of gender issues. Paul Walton has been working for more than 25 years to make science, universities, and laboratories more welcoming to women. Some of you may recall his brilliant lecture entitled “Women in science, why is it taking so long?” at Eurobic 2019 (somehow, “in the world before”) and you may find similar presentations of his on line (for instance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyFo4aNqqHA). The more the awareness penetrates our community, the more welcoming will be our scientific world to women and to diversity in general.

Recently, the French Academy of Science has put women chemists at the forefront: 

https://comptes-rendus.academie-sciences.fr/chimie/item/CRCHIM_2024__27_S2/

Read the introduction by Janine Cossy: doi:10.5802/crchim.302

and the papers related to Bioinorganic Chemistry: doi:10.5802/crchim.302 

Eva Toth: stable and inert Mn-complexes for MRI: doi:10.5802/crchim.284 

Claude Grison: metal-based ecocatalysts: doi:10.5802/crchim.273

Clotilde Policar: a multidisciplinary collaborative journey in bioinorganic chemistry and inorganic chemical biology: doi:10.5802/crchim.295

James Hoeschele AsBIC Award: To be eligible for the award, the candidates must be current members of the Society of Biological Inorganic Chemistry (SBIC) from the Asia-Pacific region and be under 50 years old, or no more than 25 years post PhD at the deadline for nomination. Career interruptions will be taken into consideration.https://sbic.memberclicks.net/assets/docs/James%20Hoeschele%202024.pdf 

AsBIC Outstanding Achievement Award: Candidates must be current members of the Society of Biological Inorganic Chemistry (SBIC), must have been involved in research and established themselves as independent investigators for at least 10 years, and must demonstrate sustained outstanding productivity over several years, resulting in a significant contribution to the Biological Inorganic Chemistry field. https://sbic.memberclicks.net/assets/docs/AsBIC%20Outstanding%202024.pdf

Conference Highlight: SABIC

The 6^th Symposium on Advanced Biological Inorganic Chemistry (SABIC) was held January 7-11, 2024 in Kolkata, India. The conference was jointly organized by the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS) and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). The conference was held at the Altair Boutique Hotel.The conveners were Abhishek Dey and Somdatta Ghosh Dey (IACS, Kolkata), Shyamalava Mazumdar and Ankona Dutta (TIFR, Mumbai).

SABIC 2024 was a grand success with around 500 attendees from all over the world. It had 105 International speakers and 64 Indian speakers and a global attendee list with 35% women and 65% men.

The conference focused on the recent developments in bioinorganic chemistry. Different areas of this broad discipline included metals in medicine, metals in diseases, metalloenzymes and their models, artificial metalloenzymes, sensing, approaches to cancer therapy, spectroscopy and dynamics, bio-inspired catalysis, metal clusters, metals in the environment and their regulation.  Experts from all over the world presented their findings and participated in the conference. This conference provided an excellent opportunity for all especially the students to be updated with the most recent exciting developments in the area.

There were three parallel sessions for the lectures and 3 poster sessions. ACS awarded 3 prizes for best oral lectures and 3 for best posters. There were 10 poster prizes sponsored by RSC and 3 by Wiley.

The success of SABIC 2024 has prompted the organisers to hold the 7^th SABIC in conjunction with the 12^th Asian Biological Inorganic Chemistry Conference (AsBIC-12) January 7-11, 2027 in Jaipur, India.

Upcoming Conference: 9^th EuChemS Congress, Dublin

The countdown to the 9^th EuChemS Chemistry Congress (ECC-9) has begun, and excitement is mounting as the event promises to bring together some of the brightest minds in the field. The meeting will take place 7-11^th July, 2024 at the Convention Centre, Dublin, Ireland. The ECC-9 provisional programme may be found here. Please click here for list of plenary speakers, including 3 Nobel Laureates.

The provisional programme offers a glimpse into the wealth of knowledge and expertise that will be shared over the course of four dynamic days. With over 1,000 sessions scheduled, attendees can expect a comprehensive exploration of diverse topics, from ground-breaking research to innovative applications. 

For those eager to contribute their own research to this vibrant tapestry of scientific exchange, the 'Call for Late Posters' presents an invaluable opportunity. This call remains open, providing a final chance for researchers to showcase their work to a distinguished audience of ~1600 delegates. It not only offers visibility for your research but also opens doors to collaboration, feedback, and recognition from peers and experts in the field. 

As the deadline for poster submissions approaches (Friday, 10^th May, 2024), we urge all researchers to seize this opportunity and join us in shaping the future of chemistry. See here for abstract submissions. Your participation is not only welcomed but celebrated, as we come together to ignite new ideas, forge new connections, and propel the boundaries of scientific knowledge ever further.

If you would like further information, please contact Professor Celine Marmion ([email protected]) or Vanessa Corradini ([email protected])

Call for Posters Closes: Friday, 10^th May 2024

Upcoming Conference: EuroBIC-17 – Münster, Germany

EuroBIC-17 will take place from August 25–29, 2024, in Münster, Germany. With more than 160 lectures and numerous poster presentations, this is your chance to get updated on the latest developments in biological inorganic chemistry. One conference highlight will be the presentation of the EuroBIC Medal to Prof. Gustav Berggren from Uppsala University. EuroBIC-17 is still accepting abstracts for poster presentations. The call for abstracts will close on May 19, so please hurry if you want to participate! Check out the conference webpage at www.eurobic17.de and follow us at @eurobic17 on X (formerly Twitter) for regular updates. 

Updates from the Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry (JBIC)

ACS Bader Award Special issue in JBIC in honor of Prof. David Britt 

Many SBIC members and friends will be well aware that Prof. David Britt recently received the ACS Bader Award, one of the most prestigious awards in our field. JBIC, the premier journal in bioinorganic chemistry, is preparing to celebrate Prof. Britt’s achievement with a special issue. It would be our honor to have an article from your group as part of this special issue in JBIC!

To facilitate planning, could you please briefly confirm your willingness to contribute to this special issue an original research article, a review or a perspective by email to our Associate Editor Christian Hartinger. We are aiming for a submission deadline of August 31, 2024.

The Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry (JBIC) is the official publication of the Society of Biological Inorganic Chemistry (SBIC), and published in collaboration with SpringerNature. Importantly, revenues from JBIC are transferred to SBIC and will directly benefit the bioinorganic community as they allow SBIC to sponsor conferences, award early career researchers with the SBIC Early Career Award and to support early career researchers to attend conferences.

Thank you for considering this opportunity. I look forward to hearing from you!

Christian Hartinger, Associate Editor JBIC

Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry (JBIC) highlights

JBIC is the well-reputed journal of our society. Nils Metzler-Nolte is the Editor-in-Chief and in this role serves as a member of the SBIC Council. Nils always welcomes manuscripts with high-impact results for publication in our journal. By submission of impactful articles to JBIC you demonstrate your active support of SBIC, our global learned society, regardless of whether you are a member of SBIC or not!

Here are some of the paper highlights recently published in JBIC and their full text is available free of charge for the next months. These articles have been selected by the journal Editor-in-Chief for their exceptional interest to members of the biological inorganic chemistry scientific community.

DNA G-quadruplex-stabilizing metal complexes as anticancer drugs

10.1007/s00775-022-01973-0
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00775-022-01973-0

This edition of the JBIC Newsletter features two review articles, both well worth having a look. Seletive recognition of particular DNA (and RNA) motifs with metal complexes is one of the hottest areas in our field, and this one from Dutch colleagues summarizes applications of G-quadruplex binding metal complexes.

A personal account on 25 years of scientific literature on [FeFe]-hydrogenase

10.1007/s00775-023-01992-5
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00775-023-01992-5

Hydrogenase, on the other hand, has been burning for quite some time – but here is a personal account of “the most important milestones” in H₂ase research. Excellent summary, and surely very useful for your teaching!

For your diary: Upcoming conferences

• Gordon Research Conference on Metallocofactors, Easton, MA, USA, June 9-14, 2024. (https://www.grc.org/metallocofactors-conference/2024/)
• 9th Metallomics Congress, London, UK, June, 16-21, 2024. (https://ism9.co.uk/)
  
• 9th EuChemS Congress, Dublin, Ireland, July 7-11, 2024. (https://euchems2024.org/)
  
• 2^nd International Conference on Metal-Binding Peptides, Toulouse, France, July 10-12, 2024 (https://mbp2024.lcc-toulouse.fr/)
  
• 45^th International Conference on Coordination Chemistry (ICCC 45), Fort Colins, Colorado, USA, July 28 – August 3, 2024. (https://iccc2024.colostate.edu/)
  
• EuroBIC-17, Muenster, Germany, August 25-29, 2024. (https://www.uni-muenster.de/Chemie.ac/en/eurobic17/)
  
• XXI Brazilian Meeting on Inorganic Chemistrye Earths (TR-2024), and the III Workshop on Theoretical Bioinorganic Chemistry (WTBC), Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, September 12-15, 2024. (https://bmic2024.qui.ufmg.br)
  
• International Society for Zinc Biology Meeting, December 1-6, 2024, Merida, Mexico. (https://www.zinc-net.com/ISZB2024/)
  
• AsBIC 11, Guilin, China, December 1-5, 2024.
• Metals in Biology Gordon Research Conference, January 19-24, 2025. (https://www.grc.org/metals-in-biology-conference/2025/)
  
• ICBIC-21, Long Beach, CA, USA July 26-31, 2025.
• AsBIC-12, Jaipur, India, January 7-11, 2027
• ICBIC-22, York, UK, 2027.
• ICBIC-23, Jeju Island, South Korea, 2029. 

Call for applications for conference support

SBIC financially supports international meetings on subjects related to Biological Inorganic Chemistry organized by members of our society. At many of these conferences, SBIC members will pay special, discounted registration fees and students and early career members may be eligible for travel awards.

In order to be eligible for conference support, the conference organizers need to be SBIC members. Applications need to be sent to the SBIC Treasurer Charles G. Riordan. Please include a detailed conference program. Diversity in gender, age, race, ethnicity, geography, and research topics covering a broad range of biological inorganic chemistry is a prerequisite to obtain SBIC funding. Adequate representation from underrepresented groups, including women for Plenary and Keynote lectures in particular, and the program in general, must be demonstrated. A maximum of 2,000 US$ for conferences or 3,000 US$ for student workshops will be granted to non-BIC conferences. All SBIC financial support is exclusively given out as SBIC travel bursaries to be awarded to young researchers (PhD students and postdocs), being SBIC members, and the financial support by SBIC must be acknowledged.

For ICBIC, AsBIC, EuroBIC and LaBIC, special funding rules apply. Please contact the SBIC Treasurer Charles G. Riordan for details.

National meetings and those organized by national chemical societies are not eligible for SBIC support, including Pacifichem Symposia.

DEADLINES for applications: March 1 and October 1 each year.

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