Application of imprinted synthetic polymers in binding assay development

The first part of the review describes a method for the synthesis of molecularly imprinted polymers for use in binding assays. The method considers the many factors involved that affect the recognition properties of the materials and describes an approach to screening and optimization of these factors. The second part describes the development of binding assays using such polymers. This includes the use of different labels, the effect of solvent and buffer, the scale of the assay (amount of solid polymer), and how these influence the quality of the assay in terms of sensitivity, selectivity, and speed of analysis.