Melvyn Little's research group at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg was one of the first to develop methods for making and screening antibody libraries. After co-founding Affitech (Oslo, Norway) in 1997, he left the DKFZ in 2000 to found Affimed Therapeutics, a biotechnology company in Heidelberg specializing in the isolation and engineering of human antibodies to treat various diseases, especially cancer. He has been an extracurricular Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Heidelberg since 1986.