Samuel I. Beale and Joanne I. Yeh are in the Division
of Biology & Medicine, Brown University, Providence,
Rhode Island 02912, USA.
Correspondence should be addressed to Samuel I. Beale sib@brown.edu
Heme degradation plays important biological roles, ranging from generating
light-absorbing compounds in plants to facilitating iron homeostasis in mammals.
The X-ray crystal structure of human heme oxygenase-1, which instigates the
degradation process, reveals insights into the enzymatic mechanism of this
important process.
