This highly readable textbook serves as a concise and engaging primer to the emerging field of antibody engineering and its various applications. It introduces readers to the basic science and molecular structure of antibodies, and explores how to characterize and engineer them. Readers will find an overview of the latest methods in antibody identification, improvement and biochemical engineering. Furthermore, alternative antibody formats and bispecific antibodies are discussed.

The book's content is based on lectures for the specializations "Protein Engineering" and "Medical Biotechnology" within the Master's curriculum in "Biotechnology." The lectures have been held at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, in cooperation with the Medical University of Vienna, since 2012 and are continuously adapted to reflect the latest developments in the field.

The book addresses Master- and PhD students in biotechnology, molecular biology and immunology, and all those who are interested in antibody engineering.

Chapter 1. Introduction by the editors

Chapter 2. Antibodies - A History of their Discovery and Properties
Chapter 3. Monoclonal Antibodies and Hybridomas
Chapter 4. Antibody Display Systems
Chapter 5. Transgenic Animals for the Generation of Human Antibodies
Chapter 6. Applications of Antibodies in Therapy, Diagnosis & Science
Chapter 7. Bispecific antibodies
Chapter 8. Antibody-Drug Conjugates
Chapter 9. Alternative Binding Scaffolds - multipurpose binders for applications in basic research and therapy
Chapter 10: Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) redirected T cells
Chapter 11. Improvement of Key Characteristics of Antibodies
Chapter 12. Engineering therapeutic antibodies for development
Chapter 13. Eukaryotic expression systems for upstream pro-cessing of monoclonal antibodies
Chapter 14. Antibody Validation.