Cells require nutrient metal to carry out essential biochemical processes. This requirement is something that the immune system has exploited to defend against infection by restricting microbial access to metal. This process of nutrient restriction during infection is called “nutritional immunity”. Bacterial pathogens evolved elaborate mechanisms to circumvent nutritional immunity and acquire metal during infection. This struggle for nutrient metal impacts microbial virulence as well as the immune response of the host, profoundly impacting the outcome of host-pathogen interactions. In this talk I will cover aspects of nutritional immunity and microbial countermeasures that are relevant to infectious diseases.