SRD has developed bacterial imprinted polymers (BIPs) for detecting bacterial pathogens in solution. Species-specific binding is achieved by creating complementary impressions in the BIP surface. The BIPs are prepared by photo-initiated polymerization; these BIPs comprise compositions that have been tailored to increase binding affinity and minimize polymer shrinkage rate. SRD determined that the bacterial orientation on the BIP surface, impression depth, and impression density are important factors in attaining reproducible, efficient and specific bacterial binding. SRD is in the process of determining the optimal method for selective binding analysis, including determining the most efficient method for removal of bacteria that are not specifically bound to the BIP. Four distinct BIPs were prepared using Escherichia coli O157, E. coli K-12, Salmonella typhimuirum, and Bacillus subtilis as the template bacteria. Fluorescent microscopy and scanning electron microscope (SEM) were used to determine specific binding of bacteria and to characterize the BIP surface, respectively. Results show that bacteria bind most efficiently to horizontally oriented impressions with optimal depth. SRD demonstrated that BIPs were selective for the template bacteria and hypothesize that this was due to size and complementary surface structures of the impressions. For example, BIPs prepared with E. coli O157 template, showed higher binding efficiency for E. coli O157 than for other strains and species. Therefore, SRD's BIP technology has the potential for species-specific bacterial detection.