Molecularly imprinted polymer beads of bovine serum albumin (BSA) were prepared via inverse phase suspension polymerization, using BSA as the template molecule, a combination of acrylamide and methacrylic acid (MAA) as double functional monomers, and N, N'-methylene bisacrylamide as the crosslinker. The effect of different monomer ratios and degrees of crosslinking were investigated. When both selectivity and physical properties of the resultant polymer beads were taken into account, the ratio of MAA in the total monomers was chosen at 40% (m/m) and the degree of crosslinking at 30% (n/n), the resultant polymer beads had good selectivity (alpha = 2.77) and good physical properties. The effects of pH and temperature were studied. It turned out that the functionalization of polymers of BSA prepared via inverse-phase suspension polymerization exhibited specific recognition for BSA. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012