Dr. Maria Sippola-Thiele is a Founder and Chief Technology and Business Officer for Chaperone Therapeutics. She was a founder of the Novati Institute, L.L.C. and Assistant Dean for Business Development at Duke University Medical Center. She is currently Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, and of Medicine, at Duke University Medical Center.

Sippola-Thiele received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Turku, Finland and carried out Postdoctoral training in the Laboratory of Tumor Virus Biology at the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. She received an MBA from the University of Michigan Business School in 1993. 

Prior to Duke, Sippola-Thiele established the Office of Technology and Corporate Research for the Medical School at the University of Michigan and during 12 years commercialized over 150 academic technologies. She also worked with Francis Collins to establish the Michigan Human Genome Center and associated research initiatives.