ABSTRACT
The starting point of our research on molecular imprinting was the desire to prepare enzyme mimics that resemble the structure of natural enzymes as closely as possible (for recent review, see [1]).When we started our work in 1968, it was just the time when ¢rst detailed investigations on the structure of natural enzymes and their catalytic action became known (for a review see [2]). Especially, chymotrypsin was investigated in these early days. In this enzyme, as found for many other examples in later investigations, the shape of the active site is complementary to the chemical structure of the substrate.This was already postulated by Fischer [3] in his ‘‘Key and Lock’’principlemore than100years ago.Functionalgroupsarearranged in this cavity acting as binding sites and as catalytic sites. The three-dimensional arrangement of these groups inside the active site is of special importance and has a strong in£uence on selectivity and catalytic activity of the enzyme.
