Green Nanotechnology for Biomedical and Environmental Applications

Nanotechnology has emerged as a transformative field with profound implications for biomedical and environmental sciences. Engineered nanomaterials offer unique physicochemical properties—such as high surface area, tunable size, enhanced reactivity, and multifunctionality—that have enabled breakthroughs in diagnostics, targeted drug delivery, antimicrobial therapies, biosensing, water purification, and environmental remediation. Despite these advantages, conventional nanomaterial synthesis methods often rely on hazardous chemicals, extreme reaction conditions, and energy-intensive processes, raising concerns regarding environmental safety, human health, and long-term sustainability. These limitations have prompted a paradigm shift toward the development of green nanotechnology, which integrates the principles of green chemistry, biotechnology, and sustainable engineering.Green nanotechnology emphasizes environmentally benign synthesis routes that minimize toxic byproducts, reduce energy consumption, and utilize renewable or biological resources. Plant extracts, microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, algae), enzymes, biopolymers, and agricultural or industrial waste materials are increasingly being explored as reducing, stabilizing, and capping agents for the synthesis of metal, metal oxide, polymeric, and carbon-based nanomaterials. Such biologically mediated approaches not only offer eco-friendly alternatives but also improve biocompatibility and functional performance, making them attractive for biomedical and environmental applications.In the biomedical domain, green-synthesized nanomaterials have shown promising potential in drug and gene delivery, cancer diagnosis and therapy, antimicrobial and antiviral treatments, bioimaging, wound healing, and tissue engineering. Their enhanced compatibility with biological systems and reduced toxicity profiles support their translation into clinical and therapeutic settings. Simultaneously, in environmental applications, green nanotechnology has demonstrated effectiveness in wastewater treatment, removal of heavy metals and organic pollutants, degradation of dyes and pesticides, air and soil remediation, and development of sensitive biosensors for environmental monitoring. These applications directly contribute to global sustainability goals, including clean water access, environmental protection, and public health improvement.Despite significant progress, several scientific and translational challenges remain. Issues related to scalability, reproducibility, long-term stability, environmental fate, eco-toxicity, regulatory acceptance, and life-cycle assessment require systematic investigation. Furthermore, there is a growing need for standardized methodologies, risk assessment frameworks, and policy-oriented research to support the safe and responsible deployment of green nanotechnologies.This Research Topic will thus provide a comprehensive and interdisciplinary platform to consolidate recent advances, assess challenges, and highlight future directions in this rapidly evolving field. The Topic calls for high-quality Original Research articles, Reviews, and short communications across multiple thematic areas, including but not limited to:• Green synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials using plants, microbes, enzymes, and waste resources• Sustainable fabrication of metal, metal oxide, polymeric, and carbon-based nanomaterials• Biomedical applications such as drug delivery, diagnostics, antimicrobial and anticancer therapies, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine• Environmental applications including water and wastewater treatment, pollutant remediation, environmental biosensing, and nano-enabled monitoring systems• Toxicity, biocompatibility, environmental impact, and life-cycle assessment of green nanomaterials• Regulatory, ethical, and translational aspects, including scale-up and commercializationBy bringing together contributions from diverse disciplines, this collection seeks to advance sustainable nanotechnological innovations that are safe, effective, and aligned with global environmental and healthcare priorities. Topic editors: ISELI L NANTES, Ewa Kowalska Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/77187/green-nanotechnology-for-biomedical-and-environmental-applications