Imprinting large molecular weight compounds in polymer composites

A method for preparing a molecularly imprinted polymer including the steps of dissolving a print molecule and monomer in an aqueous solution and dissolving a host polymer in an organic phase, preparing an emulsion of the aqueous and the organic phases, polymerizing the monomer to form a polymer composite with the host polymer along an interface between the organic phase and the aqueous phase, separating the polymer composite from the emulsion, and removing the print molecule from the composite, wherein the print molecule is a protein selected from trypsinogen, peroxidase, alkaline phosphatase, and glucose oxidase. A preferred host polymer is polymethylmethacrylate and a preferred host monomer is pyrrole. Further is a method of using the novel polymer composite including the steps of packing the polymer composite into a column to form an affinity chromatography column.