Molecular Imprinting with Functional DNA

Abstract Molecular imprinting refers to templated polymerization with rationally designed monomers, and this is a general method to prepare stable and cost‐effective ligands. This attractive concept however suffers from low affinity, low specificity, and limited signaling mechanisms for binding. Acrydite‐modified DNA oligonucleotides can be readily copolymerized into acrylic polymers. With molecular recognition and catalytic functions, such functional DNAs are recently shown to enhance the performance of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) in a few ways. First, DNA aptamers are used as macromonomers to enhance binding affinity and specificity of MIPs. Second, DNA can help produce optical signals to follow binding events. Third, imprinting can also improve the performance of catalytic DNA by enhancing its activity and specificity toward the template substrate. Finally, MIP is shown to help aptamer selection. Bulk imprinting, nanoparticle imprinting, and surface imprinting are all demonstrated with DNA. Since both DNA and synthetic polymers are cost effective and stable, their hybrid materials still possess such properties while enhancing the function of each component. This review covers recent developments on the abovementioned aspects of DNA‐containing MIPs, a field just emerged in the last five years, and future research directions are discussed toward the end.