Chemical Biology for Sustainable and Safer Materials

Chemical biology offers a powerful toolkit to make sustainable materials mechanistically interpretable, biologically validated, and safer to deploy. However, many promising “bio-inspired” and sustainability-oriented materials are still developed with limited insight into how they interact with living systems at molecular, cellular, microbial, and community levels. This gap slows translation for applications such as biosensing in complex samples, antibiofilm and antimicrobial surfaces, microbiome-aware materials, and environmentally relevant nano-enabled platforms.This Research Topic, organized in collaboration with the 3rd conference on “Bio-Inspired Materials and Chemical Biology for a Sustainable Future” (FMSDG-2026), held on 9–10 April 2026 the Chandigarh University, India, aims to highlight studies where chemical biology drives design rules and validation. We particularly welcome contributions that connect material structure and reactivity to quantitative biological outcomes, enabling safe-by-design innovation with real-world relevance.FMSDG-2026 spans broad sustainable materials themes. Within this scope, chemical biology offers a unifying, translation-oriented lens: it connects structure and reactivity to measurable biological outcomes, from enzyme-enabled green synthesis to surface-driven host–microbe interactions. At the same time, sustainability-oriented materials are increasingly deployed in complex biological settings like wounds, implant interfaces, food systems, and natural waters, where biofouling, AMR, toxicity, and long-term exposure can determine success or failure. This Research Topic focuses on that “less obvious” overlap: biologically informed design rules, robust bioanalytical platforms, and mechanistic understanding that improves performance while reducing unintended consequences.We welcome submissions in, but not limited to, the following areas:• Bio-inspired structural and functional materials for energy, environmental, and biomedical applications• Chemical Biology and Sustainable Materials for SDGs• Enzyme-inspired and biomimetic catalysis for green chemistry• Self-healing, adaptive, and stimuli-responsive bio-materials• Sustainable polymer design and biodegradable materials• Chemical biology approaches for renewable resource utilization• Biohybrid systems and living materials• Artificial photosynthesis and biomimetic energy conversion• Molecular design strategies for circular material lifecycles• Computational and systems approaches to bio-inspired designInterdisciplinary contributions bridging chemistry, materials science, biology, engineering, and environmental science are especially encouraged. Submissions that demonstrate scalability, life-cycle assessment, and real-world impact are particularly welcome.By bringing together insights from biological systems and chemical innovation, this Research Topic seeks to foster solutions that are not only technologically advanced but also ecologically responsible—advancing science toward a regenerative and sustainable future. Topic editors: Manas Sutradhar, Suman Mukhopadhyay, Catarina P Reis Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/79293/chemical-biology-for-sustainable-and-safer-materials