Dr Frédéric J. Tessier received his Ph.D in analytical chemistry from the Institut National Agronomique de Paris (France) in 1997. His doctoral research was in the area of the Maillard reaction (or glycation), vitamin C and aging. Following his Ph.D., Dr Tessier accepted a postdoctoral position with Vincent Monnier, M.D. in the Institute of Pathology at Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, OH), and a few years later a position as scientist in the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, CA). In both American institutes, his research focused on the chemical discovery of new advanced glycation end-products in the human lens and cornea. After holding two other scientific positions in the pharmaceutical industry (Guerbet, France and Roche-Palo Alto, USA), Dr Tessier took up an academic position in 2003 as an Associate Professor Analytical Chemistry and Nutrition, at the Institut Polytechnique LaSalle Beauvais (Beauvais, France). The first goal of his present research there is to understand how proteins and free amino acids, on a molecular level, are modified by reducing sugars during food processing, and how these chemical and structural transformations affect the nutritional quality and the chemical safety of heat-treated food.
