4th International Symposium on Metallomics, 2013

The 4th International Symposium on Metallomics 2013 was held at the Oviedo Congress Centre (Asturias, Northern Spain) from July 8 to July 11, 2013. About 280 participants from 30 different countries accepted the invitation to join this event. The symposium was organized by Alfredo Sanz-Medel (Chair) and María Montes-Bayón (Co-Chair) from the University of Oviedo and the organisers tried to reflect the truly interdisciplinary spirit of the scientific discipline “Metallomics” in the programme. To accomplish such an aim, the scientific programme included in total five plenary lectures, 16 invited lectures and 63 oral presentations scheduled in two parallel sessions, three short courses and 137 poster presentations.

The speakers for the plenary lectures were selected in order to widen the boundaries of the metallomics field. The titles: “Metallomics with DNA: from Molecular Machines and Sensors to Intracellular Drug Delivery” (Itamar Willner, Hebrew University of Jerusalem), “Cytometry and Atomic Mass Spectrometry Converge in Single Cell Deep Profiling of the Human Immune System” (Scott D. Tanner, DVS Sciences), “Iron in Health and Disease: the Role of the Hepcidin/Ferroportin Axis” (Sophie Vaulont, Université Paris Descartes), “Specificity in Metal-Sensing: selectivity as a Combined Function of a Set of Sensors” (Nigel J. Robinson, Durham University), and “Therapeutic and Diagnostic Metal Complexes in Medicinal Inorganic Chemistry” (Chris Orvig, University of British Columbia) reflect the multidisciplinary nature of the topic.

The invited lectures and oral presentations were divided into eight different topics: metalloproteins and -enzymes, tools for metallomics, metals in neurosciences, toxicological and essential aspects of metal species, metallodrugs, metals for bioimaging and nanoscience and plants metallomics divided into two parallel sessions in which the number of participants was quite even and did not decline during the symposium, besides we had excellent weather for the whole event.

The participants of the 4th International Symposium on Metallomics 2013 (Photograph kindly provided by Tobias Konz, University of Oviedo).

The organization of social events played a key role to stimulate the scientific and non-scientific exchange of ideas. Many amazed faces were observed among the participants when a group of typical Asturian music of Celtic roots (“gaiteros”) entered the conference hall. Not everybody expected bagpipes in a country that is in general better known for fiery flamenco. The welcome reception following this musical display allowed the participants their first impression of the congress centre constructed by the famous Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. During the conference an excursion for all participants to the Gijón region was offered followed by a typical Asturian dinner in a cider restaurant. At this event, more than one metallomics scientist accepted the challenge to pour cider from a barrel placed about 1 meter above the glass. Finally, the conference was closed with the conference dinner, celebrated in the historic and impressive location “La Reconquista” situated in the heart of Oviedo. The partying metallomics community demonstrated here that even after four days of scientific discussion enough energy was left to enjoy food, music and dancing.

Following the previous four successful meetings the 5th International Symposium on Metallomics 2015 will be held in Beijing, China, and we are looking forward to enjoying the hospitality of Professors Chai, Zhang, Chen and colleagues.

The Metallomics themed issue on the 4th International Symposium on Metallomics 2013 represents an excellent essence of the papers presented at the conference. The widespread focus of “metallomics” can be found in the varied fields of metalloproteins, -enzymes, -drugs, analytical tools, bioimaging, nanometallomics and medical, toxicological and essential aspects of metals and metalloids. We would like to express our gratitude to all authors and contributors. Finally, we hope that all readers will enjoy reading this issue as much as we do.

See you at the 5th International Symposium on Metallomics 2015 in Beijing!

María Montes-Bayón Co-chair of the 4th International Symposium on Metallomics held in Oviedo, Spain and a Guest editor of this issue. Member of the Advisory Board of Metallomics and Senior lecturer in the Department of Physical and Analytical Chemistry at the University of Oviedo.

Jörg Bettmer Guest editor of the themed issue “4th International Symposium on Metallomics, 2013”. Member of the Advisory Board of Metallomics and Ramón y Cajal Researcher in the Analytical Spectroscopy Group at the University of Oviedo.

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