Principle and Applications

Selected Articles and Reviews

Representative patent list

Co-Workers

Future Plans

A more detailed account, including an animation, is under preparation.

The Technique of Molecular Imprinting
and
Applications of the Imprinted Resulting Materials in Various Areas

Molecular Imprinting - Principle

The technique of molecular imprinting allows for the preparation of synthetic polymers with specific binding sites for a target molecule. This can be achieved if the target is present during the polymerization process, thus acting as a molecular template. Monomers carrying certain functional groups are arranged around the template through either noncovalent or covalent interactions. Following polymerization with a high degree of cross-linking, the functional groups become fixed in defined positions by the polymer network. Subsequent removal of the template by solvent extraction or chemical cleavage leaves cavities that are complementary to the template in terms of size, shape and arrangement of the functional groups. These highly specific receptor sites are capable of rebinding the target molecule with high specificity, sometimes comparable to that of antibodies. Molecularly imprinted polymers have therefore been named "antibody mimics". It has been shown that they can be substituted for biological receptors in certain formats of immunoassays and biosensors. They are characterized by high stability.

Representation of the general scheme of noncovalent molecular imprinting. For a template molecule (or target or print molecule), appropriate functional monomers are chosen and allowed to form a self-assembly construct. By co-polymerization with a cross-linking monomer, a polymer network is formed in which the self-assembly is set. Thereby, the position and the spatial conformation of the monomers are constructed according to the template. The embedded template can then be extracted from and rebind to the molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP).

Applications of molecularly imprinted polymers

Antibody/receptor binding site mimics
Immunoassays

Chemical sensors and biosensors

Tailor-made separation materials
Enantioseparation and separation of other closely related molecules (HPLC, CEC, TLC etc.)
Solid-phase extraction for sample preparation

Facilitated synthesis/Catalysis
Protecting groups
Equilibrium shifting
Catalytic polymers (enzyme mimics)

Biomedical
Slow release matrices
In-situ or extracorporeal removal of unwanted molecules

Drug discovery
Screening
New drugs or analogues by double-imprinting or direct molding

June 16, 2004