Abstract: Molecular imprinting of polymers (MIPs) is a technique employed in the fabrication of biomimetic polymeric recognition matrices, possessing high substrate site selectivity and specificity. Traditionally, MIPs have been prepared as bulk polymer monoliths and mechanically ground to obtain micrometer-sized particles. Whereas the materials obtained through this seemingly inelegant method are useful for many applications, others require MIPs in defined physical forms that need to be specially synthesized. Thus, there is a need for the synthesis of MIPs with well-defined physical characteristics by alternative polymerization techniques. In the present study, molecularly imprinted nano- and microparticles were produced by precipitation, suspension and inverse suspension polymerization using as template molecules amino acid derivatives, such as boc-L-tryptophane and z-histidine-methyl ester, utilizing hydrogen and coordination bonds respectively. These results are crucial for the future development of MIPs for larger biomolecules, since the amino acids are the construction units of peptides and proteins
Template and target information: Review - MIPs for biomolecules