Tyrosine imprinted polymer beads for solid-phase extraction (SPE) purposes were prepared by suspension polymerization, using trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate as cross-linker, and 2-vinylpyridine and 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid as bifunctional monomers in an aqueous system. The SPE evaluation showed that, except for the good regenerating properties, the imprinted polymers prepared by suspension polymerization exhibited a considerable binding specificity to tyrosine, and had similar adsorbing and molecule separating properties as those prepared by seed swelling and suspension polymerization, although the size distribution was slightly wider. The suspension polymerization technique is less time-consuming, simpler and easier to carry out. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.