Today’s wealth of knowledge of protein structures will be reviewed along with the genetics of diversity generation of antibodies, to give insights into the best strategies for improving protein function. There is particular emphasis on the choice of a functional assay to monitor effectively the changes in a desired property, and the use of functional enrichment steps where a library approach is employed. Not only is amino acid sequence amenable to may also be engineered. The course will focus on the engineering and enhancement of antibodies and antibody-like scaffolds. Examples will include work on antibody by diverse approaches and the adaptation to generate Chimeric Antibody Receptor (CAR) constructs will be discussed. Expression platforms for producing antibodies for testing and for manufacture will also be covered. A background in biochemistry and molecular biology is useful, as the course is designed to progress rapidly from simple to advanced concepts.

• Functions amenable to engineering: Affinity, specificity, stability, solubility, immunogenicity
• The measure of success: functional assays
• Engineering by design
• Engineering by random mutation
• Immunogenicity engineering
• Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs)
• CAR-T strategies
• Designed libraries
• Expression of antibodies and fragments for discovery
• Display technologies
• Improving manufacturing by protein engineering methods
• Glycosylation engineering – function and homogeneity