Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Biomolecular coronas govern the environmental fate of metal–organic frameworks

Metal–organic frameworks are increasingly used in environmental technologies, whereby their biomolecular coronas determine their identity, transport, persistence and ecosystem effects. We argue that further research is needed to embed corona considerations into framework systems design and regulation, and we outline the minimal, actionable steps needed to achieve this.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Eco- and biomolecular corona-driven transformations of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) and a safe and sustainable by design (SSbD) roadmap.

References

  1. Singh, S. et al. Metal organic frameworks for wastewater treatment, renewable energy and circular economy contributions. npj Clean Water 7, 1–22 (2024).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Mahmoudi, M., Landry, M. P., Moore, A. & Coreas, R. The protein corona from nanomedicine to environmental science. Nat. Rev. Mater. 8, 422–438 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Gan, N. et al. Experimental and computational investigations of the effects of bridging linkers on the protein corona of nanoscale metal-organic frameworks. ACS Appl Nano Mater. 7, 13027–13038 (2024).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Gan, N. et al. Protein corona of metal-organic framework nanoparticals: Study on the adsorption behavior of protein and cell interaction. Int. J. Biol. Macromol. 140, 709–718 (2019).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Tang, H. et al. Understanding the biological identity of metal-organic framework through profiling proteomic fingerprinting of protein corona. Chem. Eng. J. 509, 161320 (2025).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Zhang, P. et al. Analysis of nanomaterial biocoronas in biological and environmental surroundings. Nat. Protoc. 19, 3000–3047 (2024).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Liu, X., Wang, X. & Kapteijn, F. Water and metal–organic frameworks: from interaction toward utilization. Chem. Rev. 120, 8303–8377 (2020).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Fu, F., Crespy, D., Landfester, K. & Jiang, S. In situ characterization techniques of protein corona around nanomaterials. Chem. Soc. Rev. 53, 10827–10851 (2024).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Sun, Y., Zhou, Y., Rehman, M., Wang, Y. F. & Guo, S. Protein corona of nanoparticles: isolation and analysis. Chem. Bio Eng. 1, 757–772 (2024).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Chakraborty, S. et al. Make metal–organic frameworks safe and sustainable by design for industrial translation. Nat. Rev. Mater. 10, 167–169 (2025).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

P.D. and I.L. acknowledge the UKRI Innovate UK Horizon Europe Guarantee Fund (project number 10097888) which supports UoB’s participation in INSIGHT (Grant Agreement No. 101137742) and the UKRI Innovate UK Horizon Europe Guarantee Fund (project number 10097944) which supports UoB’s participation in PINK (Grant Agreement No. 101137809). S.C. acknowledges UKRI NERC Independent Research Fellowship (Grant number - NE/B000187/1)) for supporting this work.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Swaroop Chakraborty or Iseult Lynch.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Related links

2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2025/summary/

EU’s Safe and Sustainable by Design Framework: https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC128591

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Dhumal, P., Chakraborty, S. & Lynch, I. Biomolecular coronas govern the environmental fate of metal–organic frameworks. Nat Rev Chem (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-025-00789-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Version of record:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-025-00789-1

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing