Plastic antibodies: developments and applications

摘要

Antibodies are natural receptor molecules produced after contact with an antigen. In an attempt to mimic nature, the tech- nique of molecular imprinting has been developed, which allows specific recognition sites to be formed in synthetic polymers through the use o templates. these recognition sites mimic the binding sites of antibodies and may be substituted for them in applications such as affinity separation, assay systems and biosensors. The stability and low cost of these polymers make them particularly attractive to industry.