Development of a Versatile Strategy for Inkjet-Printed Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Microarrays

Biochips are composed of arrays of micropatterns enabling the optical detection of target analytes. Inkjet printing, complementary to commercially available micro- and nanospotters, is a contactless and versatile micropatterning method. Surprisingly, the inkjet printing of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs), also known as biomimetic synthetic antibodies, has not been demonstrated as yet. In this work, core-shell structures are proposed through the combination of inkjet printing of the core (top-down approach) and controlled radical polymerization (CRP) to decorate the core with a thin film of MIP (bottom-up approach). The resulting biochips show quantitative, specific, and selective detection of antibiotic drug enrofloxacin by means of fluorescence analysis.