Recent Applications of a Synthetic Model of Cytochrome c Oxidase: Beyond Functional Modeling†This award article is an extended version of the Ronald Breslow Award for Achievement in Biomimetic Chemistry, 2009, presented at the 237th American Chemical Society National Meeting at Salt Lake City, UT.

This account reports recent developments of a functional model for the active site of cytochrome c oxidase (CcO). This CcO mimic not only performs the selective four-electron reduction of oxygen to water but also catalytically reduces oxygen using the biological one-electron reductant, cytochrome c. This functional model has been used to understand other biological reactions of CcO, for example, the interaction between the gaseous hormone, NO, and CcO. A mechanism for inactivating NO-CcO complexes is found to involve a reaction between oxygen and Cu(B). Moreover, NO is shown to be capable of protecting CcO from toxic inhibitors such as CN(-) and CO. Finally, this functional CcO model has been used to show how H(2)S could induce hibernation by reversibly inhibiting the oxygen binding step involved in respiration.