Some of his work has dealt with defining the molecular signatures in human disease processes and accelerating target discovery in translational research.

He completed his post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School in the laboratory of Hidde Ploegh where he studied the role of proteolysis in antigen processing and presentation.

He is currently a member of the Innovative Technology Enabling Network (ITEN), a scientific consortium that explores DUBs as cancer targets coordinated by Pfizer.

[11][12] The Kessler group also helped to uncover molecular signatures associated with a panel of human diseases via clinical proteomics studies.

[22][23] In particular, Kessler's work contributed to the characterisation of small molecule DUB inhibitors as novel potential therapeutic agents against USP30[24][25] in Parkinson's disease, USP28[26] in squamous lung carcinoma and USP7[27] in multiple myeloma.