Bioorthogonal conjugation of transition organometallic complexes to peptides and proteins: Strategies and applications

The advent of bioorthogonal chemistry has revolutionized the common practices in protein bioconjugation and contributed to a large extent to the development of chemical biology, a discipline aimed at studying biological/biochemical processes/events in their natural setting (living cells, whole organisms) using dedicated chemical tools. This minireview intends to provide an up-to-date overview on the various bioorthogonal strategies implemented for the conjugation of transition organometallic entities to peptides, peptide nucleic acids and proteins with a focus on targeted applications, i.e. fluorescence- or radio-labeling for imaging, controlled delivery of therapeutic agents and bioanalysis.