Christopher Peterson, PhD

Dr. Christopher Peterson develops cell and gene therapy strategies to address a range of health outcomes, from improving cancer treatment to curing HIV. Dr. Peterson’s work focuses on hematopoietic stem cells, or blood stem cells. In the bone marrow, blood stem cells give rise to numerous cell types including oxygen-carrying red blood cells, infection-fighting white blood cells and platelets. To find a cure for HIV, Dr. Peterson has focused on genetically engineering blood stem cells and their progeny to resist HIV infection and better fight the virus. His goal is to establish a sufficient number of these modified cells in the body to improve the effectiveness, longevity and safety of gene therapies for people living with HIV.