Manfred T. Reetz is the current Hans-Meerwein-Research-Professor at the University of Marburg (Germany) and former Director and Professor Emeritus of the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung in Mülheim (Germany). He started his academic career in the US and returned to Germany for his doctorate, which he received in 1969 from the University of Göttingen. He was Professor at several universities in Germany and the USA and received numerous awards, including the Chirality Medal (2014), Otto Hahn Prize (2011), Tetrahedron Prize for Creativity in Organic Chemistry (2011), Arthur C. Cope Award (2009), Karl Ziegler Prize (2005) and the Leibniz Award of the German Research Council (1989). From 2007 to 2011, Reetz was Senator of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. He has authored more than 550 publications, several book chapters and one book about organotitanium reagents in organic synthesis.

Authored by one of the world's leading organic chemists, this authoritative reference provides an overview of basic strategies in directed evolution and introduces common gene mutagenesis, screening and selection methods.
Throughout the text, emphasis is placed on methodology development to maximize efficiency, reliability and speed of the experiments and to provide guidelines for efficient protein engineering. Professor Reetz highlights the application of directed evolution experiments to address limitations in the field of enzyme selectivity, substrate scope, activity and robustness. He critically reviews recent developments and case studies, takes a look at future applications in the field of organic synthesis, and concludes with lessons learned from previous experiments.

Introduction to directed evolution
Selection versus screening in directed evolution
Gene mutagenesis methods
Strategies for applying gene mutagenesis methods
Selected examples of directed evolution of enzymes with emphasis on stereo- and regioselectivity, substrate scope and/or activity
Directed evolution of enzyme robustness
Directed evolution of promiscuity: Artificial enzymes as catalysts in organic chemistry
Learning from directed evolution