Christopher Tipton, Ph.D.

 

Dr. Tipton received his B.S. in Biology and Neuroscience from Baylor University and went on to obtain his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. He joined the Sanz lab in 2009 and is currently studying the clonality of the active, ongoing autoimmune response in patients afflicted with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). He is using a combination of HCDR3 spectratyping and 454 Amplicon (Ultra-Deep) Sequencing to analyze the kinetics of various B cell subsets during the longitudinal disease process. Dr. Tipton is also using this methodology to study patient responses to vaccination and the corresponding changes that occur in B/plasma cell populations. In addition, Dr. Tipton is conducting single-cell RT-PCR and imaging studies for the purpose of generating and analyzing autoreactive antibodies in SLE patients.