Frederic Bard: The sweet side of traffic

JCB • VOLUME 214 • NUMBER 3 • 2016 234 At the age of seven, Frederic Bard’s father taught him about the atomic composition of water molecules. Bard was fl abbergasted to learn that water is not simply “made of water.” He became fascinated by the idea that deeper truths about the world were waiting to be discovered, and in middle school he fell in love with biology. Noticing his interest in class, a teacher predicted that he would become a medical doctor. He rebuked and claimed that he wanted to become a researcher, though at the time he had very little idea what it meant. Throughout his upbringing, Bard’s parents moved every few years all over France. He found it an excitement to leave behind the past to discover a new place and new people, and as an adult, he has kept with this trend, always moving west until Singapore, which has been his home for the last 10 years. Bard now operates his lab out of the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research. His research investigates the regulation of glycosylation through membrane trafficking and the ways in which various toxins hijack the traffi cking machinery. We contacted him to learn more.