STSM Mohsen Golabi

Aims of the STSM action: Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are stable, inexpensive and easy to produce. These advantages give MIP a great potential as a substitute for current bio-receptors like antibodies. But a lot of problem regarding to the application of MIP as recognition elements still need to be solved. The investigation of the MIP ability for bacterial detection potentially could be a great and promising scientific niche. The idea of the project is to design and develop of MIP as artificial receptors in order to use them for bacterial detection. Escherichia coli DH5α were used as a model bacterial strain in this study. Different electro polymerization techniques were used to achieve different polymer thickness. Related to the aim of the joint project three functional monomers, Scopoletin, Pyrrole and ortho-phenylenediamine (o-PD), were used for extending of the diversity of the polymers. In our pervious experiments the scanning electron microscope images proved that we had succeed to capture the whole bacterial cells by using electro polymerization of pyrrole and o-PD in presence of the bacterial cells. After the first step of the imprinting process, capturing the target, we needed to find a proper treatment for target removing. So, before any further experiments we investigated different methods for removing bacterial cells from the polymer network. In this purpose, different enzymatic, chemical and electrochemical treatments were examined.