Abstract: Cell imprinting on polymer layers produces synthetic receptors, so called surface imprinted polymers (SIPs) capable of specific and selective cellular recognition. However, their recognition mechanisms are not yet fully understood . Therefore, various factors that influence cell recognition were explored using different spectroscopic techniques. Specifically, the molecular dynamics of surface-imprinted and non-imprinted polyurethane layers was studied with focus on the dielectric relaxation signatures of proteins and lipids by dielectric relaxation spectroscopy (DRS). Furthermore, an alternative detection scheme for the electrical properties of the imprinted polymer layer has been tested . The new idea is to place a patterned thin film interdigitated electrode structure close to the cell recognition layer to obtain local information about the polymer/cell interface.