DESIGN OF HIGHLY POTENT IMPRINTED ANION RECEPTORS FOR SENSING AND HIGH THROUGHPUT OMICS

The molecular constituents of a living cell is dominated by molecules carrying a net negative charge e.g. cofactors, enzyme substrates, nucleic acids, proteins, the lipid double layer, the glycocalix. As a consequence, evolution has resulted in highly refined receptors capable of recognizing anions. This has spurred research to design synthetic hosts displaying a unique or mimetic anion binding behavior. Imprinting offers here an added value since it is based on a bottom up self-assembly design that also works for complex multifunctional targets. This talk will focus on recent advances in our group to design receptors for phosphates, sulphates and carboxylates based on neutral urea- or charged imidazolium- monomers. Key factors affecting affinity and water compatibility will be discussed e.g. assisting comonomers, template size effects, polymer formats, and in the final part of my talk I will discuss the use of such binders as capture phases for high throughput omics or as sensors for analyzing known biomarkers or for discovering new ones.