Prof. Dr. Alain Tissier heads the Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry in Halle, Germany.

Alain Tissier studied plant molecular biology and biochemistry at the University of Paris-Sud, where he also received his PhD in 1993. After working as a postdoctoral fellow at the Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich (UK) and as a scientist at the CEA research center in France, he habilitated at the University of Clermont-Ferrand in 2003 and founded a start-up in the field of plant biotechnology. From 2009, Alain Tissier was Professor of Plant Biochemistry at the University of Montpellier II, and in 2010, moved to the Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry in Halle. There he established the department "Metabolic and Cell Biology" and became professor for Biochemistry of Plant Secondary Metabolism at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg.

In his research, the biochemist seeks to understand metabolic networks, especially in specialized plant cell factories such as trichomes. He has already made important contributions to the elucidation of plant biosynthetic pathways and the interplay between primary and secondary metabolism. In addition, Tissier is interested in Metabolic Engineering and Synthetic Biology and he and his team are developing useful molecular tools in that area.