Protein-imprinted soft-wet polyacrylamide gel beads were synthesized via inverse suspension polymerization, using bovine serum albumin (BSA) as template. The gel beads had macroporous structure and were suited to let the protein pass in and out. The adsorption capacity of BSA-imprinted gel beads was almost four times as much as that of non-imprinted gel beads. The selectivity test of imprinted gel beads shows that imprinted gel beads exhibited good recognition for BSA as compared to the other proteins. We consider the formation of multiple hydrogen bonds and complementary shape between the imprinting cavities and the template proteins were the two factors that led to the imprinting effect. In addition, the influence factors on imprinting efficiency and adsorption capacity, as well as regeneration property of imprinted gel beads were also researched in this paper. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.