Announcement: Third Keele Meeting on Aluminium the Bioinorganic Chemistry of Aluminium: From Microbe to Man

Aims of the Meeting Aluminium is one of only a few elements to have been discussed at all levels of public life. Unfortunately, much of the debate concerning its impact upon biota, including man, has been uninformed and has served only to trivialise this important field of research. The study of aluminium and its activity in biological systems is easily justified. Its ubiquity alone suggests biological function, and yet, none has been found. What is clear is that aluminium is found in all biota and that this occurrence is either the vestige of a metal that has been selected out of biological processes or the result of a burgeoning exposure which is currently an active player in natural selection. It is, perhaps, the latter possibility that courts such red mists of controversy? Our role as scientists is to look beyond the controversy and to provide the best possible indications of the biological activity of aluminium. All researchers working on aluminium will contribute to this process. The Keele Meetings promote a multidisciplinary approach bringing together all scientists with an interest in the chemistry and biology of aluminium. The term, bioinorganic chemistry, is simply a description of how research from different fields can be brought together and, perhaps, re-interpreted to offer an interdisciplinary explanation of the observed effects of biologically available aluminium. The continued aim of the Keele Meetings on Aluminium is to promote such an approach.