Single step patterning of molecularly imprinted polymers for large scale fabrication of microbiochips

We use photolithography to pattern molecularly imprinted polymers for the wafer-scale production of biochips. We are able to produce multiplexed, spatially resolved micrometer-sized features of functional materials capable of molecular recognition. Using a fluorescent probe, dansyl-L-Phe, we show specific analyte binding to MIP patterns imprinted with boc-L-Phe, by fluorescence microscopy. Advantages of this technique are the control of shape and size of the patterns with a resolution of 1.5 microm, and the possibility of depositing a number of different MIPs on the same chip (parallelization). Multiplexing chips on the same substrate paves the road to their mass-production. Because of the simplicity of the method and the low cost of chip fabrication, we believe that mass production of portable microbiochips based on stable MIPs is now in close reach. Their combination with integrated transducers fabricated by micromachining techniques appears also possible.