This SBIR Phase I project is directed toward the development of a combinatorial method for the synthesis of imprinted polymers. Molecularly imprinted polymers have been used as tailor-made affinity elements for chromatographic stationary phases, metal-ion selective matrices, antibody mimics, enzyme mimics, and as recognition elements in sensors. The selection of functional monomers, which interact strongly with a template, is crucial to generate high affinity binding sites. But it is hard to predict the best functional monomer for imprinting a given template molecule. in addition, with the current imprinting protocols, which involve a """"""""one-monomer-at-a-time"""""""" approach, finding an optimal monomer system by examining a number of imprinted polymers under different conditions is a lengthy and rather unpredictable trial-and-error process. In this project, the applicants propose an in-situ polymerization approach combined with an automated chromatographic screening technique for high-throughput synthesis and evaluation of imprinted polymers. An automated reagent dispensing technique will create combinatorial libraries of imprinted polymers that contain different combinations of monomers with various functional groups. The libraries will be screened for print molecule affinity and selectivity by an automated chromatographic technique. The goal of this Phase I project is to show the feasibility of the proposed combinatorial method for the discovery of novel molecular receptors.
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