Can we rationally design molecularly imprinted polymers?

The nearly exponential growth in the molecular imprinting literature has to a large extent been fuelled by an increasing awareness of the potential of molecular imprinting based technologies. Despite the acceptance of the tec hnique by cognate disciplines and the demonstration of its usefulness in a number of enabling technologies, relatively little is known about the molec ular level events underlying the imprinting process and subsequent recognit ion events. What rules govern imprint formation? Can we use such rules to r ationally design molecularly imprinted polymers? (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.