Professor Iseult Lynch PhD, MBA

Professor Iseult Lynch

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Professor of Environmental Nanosciences
Theme lead for Environmental Sciences
Director of Research for Environmental Research and Justice (CERJ)

Contact details

Address
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Iseult Lynch is an Associate Editor for Environmental Science: Nano, and Deputy director for the Facility for Environmental Nanomaterials Analysis and Characterisation (FENAC) at the University of Birmingham.  Her research focuses on the environmental interactions of nanoparticles and nanostructured surfaces with biological entities from macromolecules to organisms.

She has a very broad overview of all aspects of nanomaterials safety assessment and the data requirements, having served as Chair of the EU Nanosafety Cluster Working Group (NSC WG) on databases for two years (and as co-Chair of the Hazed WG prior to that), as well as being theme editor for the Materials and classification section of the NSC Vision2020 research roadmap (under review for publication in June 2013). Prior to the University of Birmingham she was Strategic Research Manager at the Centre for BioNano Interactions in University College Dublin, where she was instrumental in the development and implementation of numerous large EU-funded projects.

Iseult is part of the Birmingham Plastics Network, an interdisciplinary team of more than 40 academics working together to shape the fate and sustainable future of plastics.  This unique team brings together chemists, environmental scientists, philosophers, linguists, economists, and experts in many other fields, to holistically address the global plastics problem.

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Qualifications

BSc. (Hons) Chemistry (1995)

PhD (Chemistry, 2000)

MBA (2012)

Teaching

Professor Lynch is the undergraduate admissions tutor for Environmental Science.

Leads and contributes to undergraduate modules on the following topics:

  • molecules and materials
  • environmental protection
  • environmental pollution

Deputy director of the MRes in Biological and Environmental Nanoscience, and module leader for the MRes module 'Biological and Environmental Nanoscience'.

Postgraduate supervision

Dr Lynch’s research interests include:

Synthesis of novel materials for environmental applications - remediation, agriculture, solar desalination and more.
Nanoparticle interactions with biomolecules in the environment (natural organic matter, secreted proteins, organic pollutants, etc.) - the “eco-corona” and secondary pollutant effects
Determination of the fate and behavior of nanomaterials in the environment
Development of high throughput screening applications: nano(eco)toxicology, bionanointeractions and assessment of environmental fate of nanomaterials.
Nanoinformatics approaches for safe and sustainable by design chemicals and materials.
FAIR data and data management workflows and tools. Ontology and metadata schema.

Research

Understanding the role of the bio-nano interface, and interactions with biomolecules, in determining nanoparticle fate and behaviour in the environment and for human health.

FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable) data and approaches and tools to suppport FAIR data

Interactions between pollution, hydrology and climate change

Other activities

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Zouraris, D, Mavrogiorgis, A, Tsoumanis, A, Saarimäki, LA, del Giudice, G, Federico, A, Serra, A, Greco, D, Rouse, I, Subbotina, J, Lobaskin, V, Jagiello, K, Ciura, K, Judzinska, B, Mikolajczyk, A, Sosnowska, A, Puzyn, T, Gulumian, M, Wepener, V, Martinez, DST, Petry, R, El Yamani, N, Rundén-Pran, E, Murugadoss, S, Shaposhnikov, S, Minadakis, V, Tsiros, P, Sarimveis, H, Longhin, EM, SenGupta, T, Olsen, AKH, Skakalova, V, Hutar, P, Dusinska, M, Papadiamantis, AG, Gheorghe, LC, Reilly, K, Brun, E, Ullah, S, Cambier, S, Serchi, T, Tämm, K, Lorusso, C, Dondero, F, Melagrakis, E, Fraz, MM, Melagraki, G, Lynch, I & Afantitis, A 2025, 'CompSafeNano project: NanoInformatics approaches for safe-by-design nanomaterials', Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal, vol. 29, pp. 13-28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csbj.2024.12.024

Jiang, M, Wang, X, Han, R, Ning, P, Lynch, I & Ma, J 2025, 'Establishing photocatalysis-self-Fenton system over a S-scheme Fe/Fe2O3@CuBi2O4 for enhancing TC removal via in-situ generating H2O2 and Fe/Cu dual-metal electron cycle: Radical and non-radical pathways', Separation and Purification Technology, vol. 354, no. Part 2, 128675. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seppur.2024.128675

Tsiros, P, Chimarios, N, Zouraris, D, Tsoumanis, A, Sarimveis, H, Melagraki, G, Lynch, I & Afantitis, A 2025, 'Optimizing nanoparticle-mediated drug delivery: insights from compartmental modeling via the CompSafeNano cloud platform', RSC Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1039/d4su00686k

Zhang, P, Cao, M, Chetwynd, AJ, Faserl, K, Abdolahpur Monikh, F, Zhang, W, Ramautar, R, Ellis, LJA, Davoudi, HH, Reilly, K, Cai, R, Wheeler, KE, Martinez, DST, Guo, Z, Chen, C & Lynch, I 2024, 'Analysis of nanomaterial biocoronas in biological and environmental surroundings', Nature protocols, vol. 19, pp. 3000–3047. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41596-024-01009-8

Kolokathis, P, Voyiatzis, E, Sidiropoulos, N, Tsoumanis, A, Melagraki, G, Tamm, K, Lynch, I & Afantitis, A 2024, 'ASCOT: A Web Tool for the Digital Construction of Energy Minimized Ag, CuO, TiO2 Spherical Nanoparticles and Calculation of Their Atomistic Descriptors', Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csbj.2024.03.011

Jeliazkova, N, Longhin, E, El Yamani, N, Rundén-Pran, E, Moschini, E, Serchi, T, Vrček, IV, Burgum, MJ, Doak, SH, Cimpan, MR, Rios-Mondragon, I, Cimpan, E, Battistelli, CL, Bossa, C, Tsekovska, R, Drobne, D, Novak, S, Repar, N, Ammar, A, Nymark, P, Di Battista, V, Sosnowska, A, Puzyn, T, Kochev, N, Iliev, L, Jeliazkov, V, Reilly, K, Lynch, I, Bakker, M, Delpivo, C, Sánchez Jiménez, A, Fonseca, AS, Manier, N, Fernandez-Cruz, ML, Rashid, S, Willighagen, E, D Apostolova, M & Dusinska, M 2024, 'A template wizard for the cocreation of machine-readable data-reporting to harmonize the evaluation of (nano)materials', Nature protocols, vol. 19, pp. 2642–2684. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41596-024-00993-1

Bhadane, P, Menon, D, Goyal, P, Reza Alizadeh Kiapi, M, Kanta Satpathy, B, Lanza, A, Mikulska, I, Scatena, R, Michalik, S, Mahato, P, Asgari, M, Chen, X, Chakraborty, S, Mishra, A, Lynch, I, Fairen-Jimenez, D & Misra, SK 2025, 'A two-dimensional metal-organic framework for efficient recovery of heavy and light rare earth elements from electronic wastes', Separation and Purification Technology, vol. 360, 130946. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seppur.2024.130946

Abdolahpur Monikh, F, Lehtonen, Š, Kekäläinen, J, Karkossa, I, Auriola, S, Schubert, K, Zanut, A, Peltonen, S, Niskanen, J, Bandekar, M, von Bergen, M, Leskinen, JTT, Koistinen, A, Bogialli, S, Guo, Z, Kukkonen, JVK, Chen, C & Lynch, I 2024, 'Biotransformation of nanoplastics in human plasma and their permeation through a model in vitro blood-brain barrier: An in-depth quantitative analysis', Nano Today, vol. 59, 102466. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nantod.2024.102466

Comment/debate

Chakraborty, S, Menon, D, Mikulska, I, Pfrang, C, Fairen-Jimenez, D, Misra, SK & Lynch, I 2025, 'Make metal–organic frameworks safe and sustainable by design for industrial translation', Nature Reviews Materials. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-025-00774-6

Letter

Chakraborty, S, Drexel, R, Bhadane, P, Langford, N, Dhumal, P, Meier, F & Lynch, I 2025, 'An integrated multimethod approach for size-specific assessment of potentially toxic element adsorption onto micro- and nanoplastics: implications for environmental risk', Nanoscale. https://doi.org/10.1039/d5nr00353a

Other contribution

Afantitis, A, Antoniou, M, Melagraki, G & Lynch, I 2024, A Systematic Review for the Toxicological impacts associated with Biomedical Applications of Iron Carbide Nanoparticles in Tumour Theranostics. Center for Open Science. https://doi.org/10.17605/osf.io/84rv5

Review article

Meskher, H, Thakur, AK, Hazra, SK, Ahamed, MS, Saleque, AM, Alsalhy, QF, Shahzad, MW, Ivan, MNAS, Saha, S & Lynch, I 2025, 'Recent advances in applications of MXenes for desalination, water purification and as an antibacterial: a review', Environmental Science: Nano, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 1012-1036. https://doi.org/10.1039/d4en00427b

Zhou, Y, Wang, Y, Peijnenburg, W, Vijver, MG, Balraadjsing, S, Dong, Z, Zhao, X, Leung, KMY, Mortensen, HM, Wang, Z, Lynch, I, Afantitis, A, Mu, Y, Wu, F & Fan, W 2024, 'Application of Machine Learning in Nanotoxicology: A Critical Review and Perspective', Environmental Science and Technology, vol. 58, no. 34, pp. 14973–14993. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.4c03328

Papadiamantis, AG, Mavrogiorgis, A, Papatzelos, S, Mintis, D, Melagraki, G, Lynch, I & Afantitis, A 2024, 'A systematic review on the state-of-the-art and research gaps regarding inorganic and carbon-based multicomponent and high-aspect ratio nanomaterials', Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal, vol. 25, pp. 211-229. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csbj.2024.10.020

Kukkola, A, Chetwynd, AJ, Krause, S & Lynch, I 2024, 'Beyond Microbeads: Examining the Role of Cosmetics in Microplastic Pollution and Spotlighting Unanswered Questions', Journal of Hazardous Materials, vol. 476, 135053. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.135053

View all publications in research portal

Expertise

Nanomaterials in the environment (as well as food, cosmetics, consumer products, nanomedicines, nanopesticides etc.); nanomaterials transformations; nanomaterials fate and behaviour; nanomaterials eco/toxicology; Nanosafety assessment; nanoregulation; nanogovernance; Microplastics; nanoplastics; Open data