Mimicking the Best of Nature’s Binders: New technique produces artificial receptors

In yet another stab at mimicking nature’s chemical innovations, scientists have devised a new way to make artificial receptors that differentiate among similar molecules.

MOLECULAR IMPRINTING. A soon-to-be artificial receptor with a porphyrin template (yellow). B. Grosser/Imaging Technology Group, Beckman Institute

Chemists have long admired how precisely antibodies select specific chemicals in complex biological brews.