Abstract
The recent research trends on metallomics, which was proposed as integrated biometal science, are reviewed with emphasis on chemical speciation of trace metals in biological systems. The background of proposal of metallomics, literature survey of metallomics and related scientific fields, such as genomics and proteomics, and the research fields to be promoted in metallomics are discussed from the viewpoints of biometal-assisted function science. Furthermore, the present status of metallomics research are described in terms of all-elements analysis of one biolorical cell (cell microcosm) and hyphenated instrumental systems for chemical speciation. As for the experimental results, the metal-profiling chromatograms for salmon egg cell cytoplasm, speciation of mercury and arsenic in salmon egg cell, speciation and excretion patterns of arsenic species in human urine after ingestion of Hijiki (seaweed), and binding behaviors of cisplatin (anti-cancer drug) with DNA and RNA are introduced in relation with chemical speciation for metallomics. Finally, future prospective of metallomics research is discussed, focusing on the significance of all-elements or multielement analysis in biomedical research/diagnosis and the metallomics-oriented research on chemical evolution.
