ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the biosynthesis of nanoparticles using various halophiles, acidophiles, alkaliphiles psychrophiles, and thermophiles. Recently, close attention has been given to the biosynthesis of nanoparticles by extremophiles. Extremophiles are microorganisms able to grow and survive under extreme environmental conditions. Due to the ability of extremophiles to survive in harsh conditions, these organisms are of significant biotechnological interest, since they produce extremozymes (enzymes produced under extreme conditions), which are able to transform substrates under extreme conditions. Since the biosynthesis of nanoparticles by algae is mostly extracellular, studies with algae have also shown that biosynthesis can be conducted using cell-free extracts of algae containing biomolecules, which is promising for large scale industrial applications. Vast developments have been done in exploiting the power of nanotechnology in various fields of biomedicine. The most critical use of nanoparticles in biomedicine has been for disease diagnosis and treatment.
