Chris Tipper grew up outside Worcester, Massachusetts, surrounded by woods and fields and the academic atmosphere of UMass Medical, where his father, a professor and original chair of microbiology, inspired his curiosity about the living world. He pursued Biology at Swarthmore College, earning a BA in the field. After gaining experience as a lab technician, his academic journey led him to the University of Washington for his master's degree. It was during his time there, delving into the study of Agrobacterium, that his interest in inter-kingdom gene transfer was ignited, prompting his return East for his PhD under the mentorship of noted retrovirologist John Coffin at Tufts School of Biomedical Science.

His postdoctoral work alongside Joe Sodroski at Harvard yielded published research on in vitro and in vivo assembly and uncoating of lentiviral capsids, contributing significantly to the understanding of gene delivery mechanisms. This work caught the attention of bluebird bio, where he transitioned into the industry.

At bluebird, Chris devised and patented a mechanism that enhanced lentiviral transduction efficiency across pooled CD34+ cell subpopulations. This breakthrough not only expanded the eligible treatment population for bluebird's programs but also resulted in improved treatment outcomes.

As head of upstream development and later vector engineering at Dimension Therapeutics, he played a pivotal role in scaling and industrializing AAV producer cell development and the engineering of programs in HemA, OTC, and GSDIa. Additionally, he collaborated internally to co-develop three pipeline programs, including Wilson Disease.

Driven by the desire to innovate AAV gene therapy further, Chris joined the Grousbeck Gene Therapy Center at MEEI. There, he built and led a team focused on proof of concept and industrialization of AAV library screening. Their work rapidly generated critical data, uncovering a key domain responsible for liver tropism across AAV clades, potentially enhancing characteristics for myo- and neurotropic applications.

This groundbreaking work culminated in the foundation of Affinia Therapeutics, built on proprietary AAV libraries that served as foundational IP. As VP of Vector Discovery, Chris expanded and accelerated NGS-based capsid screening, fostering the development of novel variants. His team also played a crucial role in preclinical R&D, collaborating closely across departments to drive candidate selection and define relevant models and endpoints.

In his most recent role as SVP of R&D at Excision Biotherapeutics, he navigated the complexities of bringing gene editing products to the clinic, overseeing informatics, regulatory submissions, IP, and operations. Sadly this role fell claim to the churn of small-company economics, but Chris eagerly set up shop as a consultant to continue his work of bringing gene and cell therapies off of the bench and into the clinic.

Outside of his professional endeavors, Chris indulges his passion for mycology, woodworking, mountain biking, and running.