Development of a Biomimetic Sensor for Tamoxifen with MIP-Based Specificity

Molecular imprinting is a methodology used to create recognition sites in synthetic polymers by copolymerising a functional and a cross-linking monomer in the presence of the target analyte. This imprint molecule acts as a molecular template by the interaction with the complementary groups of the functional monomer and arranges the cross-linker to resemble the molecular shape. In the pre-polymerisation mixture, the dissolved target interacts by covalent (pre-organised approach) or non-covalent (self-assembly approach) binding with the functional monomer responsible for localising the chemically active moieties of the target molecules during copolymerisation. After polymerisation the template molecules are removed, providing binding sites ideally complementary in size, shape and functionality to the template so that the template preferentially rebinds to the cavity (Yarman A., 2012; Yarman et al., in press).