> Molecular imprinting polymer

Molecular imprinting polymer (MIP) is a technique to create a three-dimensional network that has a “memory” of the shape and functional group positions of the template molecule. The resulting MIP can selectively recognize the template molecule used in the imprinting process, even in the presence of compounds with structure and functionality similar to those of the template.

MIP could be used as:

> Intelligent surface and hydrogel polymers

The intelligent polymers are the polymers having specific behaviour in their environments. They could be:

• Associative polymers made of hydrophobically modified water-soluble polymer backbone with a large diversity of architectures such as bloc, star or comb shape polymer, …

• Stimuli-responsive polymers, defined as polymers that undergo relatively large and abrupt, physical or chemical changes in response to small external changes (a stimulus such as temperature, pH, chemical agents, …) in the environmental conditions.

For life sciences applications, according to application, these polymers are designed in 3 dimensional form named intelligent hydrogel or 2 dimensional form named functional smart coating or surface:

• Hydrogels are three-dimensional, hydrophilic, polymeric networks capable of imbibing large amounts of water. The networks are composed of homopolymers or copolymers, and are insoluble due to the presence of chemical crosslinks, or physical crosslinks. Hydrogels resemble natural living tissue more than any other class of synthetic biomaterials. Furthermore, the high water content of the materials contributes to their biocompatibility. Thus, hydrogels can be used as contact lenses, membranes for biosensors, linings for artificial hearts, materials for artificial skin, encapsulation and drug delivery devices.

• Functional and smart coating is a coating able to obey to specific tasks. They can be used as membranes for biosensors or protein arrays by allowing immobilization of the capture probes and by preventing non specific adsorption of proteins. The hydrophilic behaviour of the surface can vary by tuning the hydrophilic /hydrophobic balance or by using a stimuli-responsive polymers.