Event Details

Join Professor Subrayal Reddy, University of Central Lancashire, for a talk on MIPs. Also available on Teams

Antibodies are produced by the body playing a crucial role in the natural immune response to harmful substances such as viruses, bacteria and chemicals. Antibodies are also being used widely in protein diagnostics and sensors to detect infection and disease. Who hasn’t taken an antibody-based lateral flow test in the last 5 years?! Antibody application in diagnostics presents issues related to their ethical sourcing, cost of production, temperature and pH instability. Synthetic receptors such as molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are being intensively researched as stable and low-cost alternatives to biological antibodies in diagnostic and medical imaging applications. They can be rapidly produced (in a matter of hours) and these smart materials offer the promise of replacing antibodies in immunodiagnostics, biosensors, biological extraction and therapeutics. In this Seminar, I will introduce synthetic receptors focusing on MIPs, how they are synthesised, characterised and are being used, and discuss what the future holds for them outside of the laboratory and in real-world applications.

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