1. Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington, Box 351720, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA
2. Ingengneria Dei Materiali, Universit Degli Studi Di Trento, Italy
3. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Washington, Box 351750, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA

Correspondence to: Buddy D. Ratner^1,3 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to B.D.R.
(e-mail: Email: ratner@uweb.engr.washington.edu).

Abstract

Synthetic materials capable of selectively recognizing proteins are important in separations¹, biosensors² and the development of biomedical materials^{3, 4, 5}. The technique of molecular imprinting creates specific recognition sites in polymers by using template molecules^{6, 7, 8, 9}. Molecular recognition is attributed to binding sites that complement molecules in size, shape and chemical functionality¹⁰. But attempts to imprint proteins have met with only limited success^{11, 12, 13, 14, 15}. Here we report a method for imprinting surfaces with protein-recognition sites. We use radio-frequency glow-discharge plasma deposition to form polymeric thin films¹⁶ around proteins coated with disaccharide molecules. The disaccharides become covalently attached to the polymer film, creating polysaccharide-like cavities that exhibit highly selective recognition for a variety of template proteins, including albumin, immunoglobulin G, lysozyme, ribonuclease and streptavidin. Direct imaging of template recognition is achieved by patterning a surface at the micrometre scale with imprinted regions.