Overall, SELEC assumes that the abundance of a sequence over multiple rounds is a good predictor for sensor sensitivity and selectivity. To allow for rapid amplification, these selections have to be (so far) nucleic acid based, and the sequences are amplified via polymerase chain reactions (PCR). This requires modification of the nucleotides with flanking regions (e.g. (C)6) and primer. As a consequence, the varied region can be, compared to the length of the amplification construct relatively short. Since nucleic acid conformations on nanoparticles are known to be dependent on self-interaction, and the variation of as a few bases has been shown to alter the sensor response significantly, the conformation of the varied region is likely affected by the amplification regions as well as the large diversity of different nucleic acids in the DNA pool. Additionally, the preparation via tip sonication with the analyte as well as the separation from high-affinity DNA imposes certain size and stability requirements on the analytes. Nevertheless, this method provides up to our knowledge the highest scalability for the identification of high affinity binders from a large pool of (bio)polymers. Conceptually, SELEC is closely related to SELEX. Therefore, one alternative to SELEC approaches is the use of a preselected aptamer, which has also been used to create sensitive and selective sensors for serotonin. . Copyright 2019 The Authors.