Molecularly imprinted polymers for bioanalysis: chromatography, binding assays and biomimetic sensors.

The field of molecular imprinting has undergone rapid expansion in recent years, and applications have been demonstrated for imprinted materials in separations, analysis and catalysis. The range of compounds that has been imprinted has also expanded. Imprinted polymers have been used for the chromatographic separation of amino acids, sugars, drugs and nucleotides. Drugs have been measured using imprinted polymers as antibody substitutes in radioligand binding assays. Applications are being found for imprinted polymers in biomimetic sensing devices and sensors. Particularly interesting developments from the past year include ligand binding assays for morphine in aqueous buffers with similar specificity to antibody-based assays and the imprinting of cholesterol using a novel procedure in which the template is covalently bonded to the monomer during polymerization, but after cleavage, rebinds the polymer only by non-covalent interactions.