Objective

Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are synthetic alternatives to antibodies in diagnostics, sensors and separations. Due to their synthetic nature, they do not require any cold chain storage and can be easily integrated with signaling functionalities during synthesis, without affecting their recognition capabilities. MIP nanoparticles (nanoMIPs) are considered to be a robust alternative to antibodies but, despite their advantages, their production is often time-consuming and laborious. Here, we propose an automated reactor for a reproducible, controlled and scalable production of nanoMIPs for diagnostic applications. It relies on the immobilisation of the template onto a solid support which is placed inside the reactor. MIPs are formed around the template and then selected through a temperature-based affinity separation, allowing to selectively collect high affinity MIP nanoparticles only.. Process parameters are under computer control, thus requiring minimal manual intervention.