The monthly series "My Favorite Element" part of Georgia Tech's celebration of 2019 as the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements, #IYPT2019GT. Each month a member of the Georgia Tech community will share his/her favorite element via video.

Amit Reddi is an assistant professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He is an inorganic chemist interested in the roles metals play in biology. Up to 50% of all proteins require a metal for their proper functioning. Yet, only about a dozen metals are encounterered in biology.  

That so few metals allow proteins to function in hundreds of different ways is what drew Reddi to research: to better understand how proteins and metals interact to achieve diversity in protein function.

On the other hand, the metals crucial to protein function are also toxic to cells when they are not handled properly in the cell.  At Georgia Tech, Reddi studies how entire cells and organisms are able to use metals productively fashion, without suffering their toxicity.

His favorite element is .... Watch the video!

Renay San Miguel, communications officer in the College of Sciences, produced and edited the videos in this series. 

Other videos in this series are available at https://periodictable.gatech.edu/.

January 2019: Jeanine Williams, biochemistry major and track star