title: Bringing inorganic chemistry to life with inspiration from R. J. P. Williams.
abstract: Our appreciation of the scholarly ideas and thinking of Bob Williams is illustrated here by a few of the areas in which he inspired us. His journey to bring inorganic chemistry to life began with an early interest in analytical chemistry, rationalising the relative stabilities of metal coordination complexes (The Irving-Williams Series), and elucidating the organometallic redox chemistry of vitamin B12. He (and Vallee) recognised that metal ions are in energised (entatic) states in proteins and enzymes, which themselves are dynamic structures of rods and springs. He played a key role in helping Rosenberg to pave the road toward the clinic for the anticancer drug cisplatin. He believed that evolution is not just dependent on DNA, but also on the metallome. Organisms and the environment are one system: does DNA code directly for all the essential elements of life?
authors: Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QR, UK. allen.hill@queens.ox.ac.uk.
authors: H Allen O
authors: HA
authors: Hill
authors: Department of Chemistry, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK. p.j.sadler@warwick.ac.uk.
authors: Peter J
authors: PJ
authors: Sadler
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D015392:Chemistry, Inorganic; D049673:History, 20th Century
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents
keywords: Entatic state; Essential elements; Irving-Williams series; Metalloproteins; Platinum drugs; The metallome; Vitamin B12