Christopher van Dyck, MD

Dopamine Transporter (DAT) Imaging in Aging.

He has used SPECT imaging to demonstrate a 50% loss of DATs over the lifespan and has further shown that this loss of dopamine is associated with the slowing of reaction time that is characteristic of the normal aging process.

The Apolipoprotein E e4 (ApoE e4) Phenotype of AD.
He has combined genetics and neuroimaging to characterize the role of the most common genetic risk factor, ApoE e4, in structural and cognitive changes in AD. He has found that patients who carry the ApoE e4 allele are at greater risk for psychosis and for loss of medial temporal lobe tissue. He is now using the PET ligand [11C]PIB to assess amyloid plaques in asymptomatic first-degree relatives as a function of ApoE e4 genotype.

• Guanfacine Treatment for Prefrontal Cognitive Dysfunction in Elderly Subjects (funded by NIA). The major goal of this project is to test the hypothesis that low doses of the alpha-2A-adrenoceptor agonist guanfacine can improve deficits in prefrontally-mediated working memory and executive control functions in healthy elderly subjects.
• Amyloid Binding In Subjects At Risk For Alzheimer’s Disease (funded by Alzheimer's Association). The major goal of this project is to test the hypothesis that in vivo brain Aß burden as measured using [11C]PIB and PET is increased in healthy subjects with a family history of AD who are homozygous or heterozygous for the ApoE e4 allele compared to subjects who lack this allele.
• Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study Unit (ADCS, funded by NIA). The major goal of this multicenter consortium is to conduct clinical trial research in Alzheimer’s disease that would not otherwise be conducted by private pharmaceutical corporations. Role: Principal Investigator for Yale Site (PI: Paul Aisen, University of California, San Diego)
• Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI, funded by NIA) The major goals of this project are to: 1. Develop improved methods which will lead to uniform standards for acquiring longitudinal, multi-site MRI and PET data on patients with Alzheimer’s disease, mild cognitive impairment, and elderly controls. 2. Acquire a generally accessible data repository, which describes longitudinal changes in brain structure and metabolism. In parallel, acquire clinical cognitive and biomarker data for validation of imaging surrogates. Role: Principal Investigator for Yale Site (PI: University of California, San Francisco)