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Christopher van Dyck

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Christopher H. van Dyck
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Christopher H. van Dyck is the Founder and Director of the Yale Alzheimer’s Disease Research Unit (ADRU) at Yale University School of Medicine, where he is Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology and Neuroscience. His research uses brain imaging to learn about the progression of pathology in Alzheimer's disease, and to test potential new treatments for this disease.

Alzheimer’s Disease Research

Dr. van Dyck created the Yale Alzheimer’s Research Unit in 1992, performing research on Alzheimer’s disease and related cognitive disorders. He has helped to pioneer the use of SPECT and PET imaging to learn about brain alterations related to cognitive and behavioral changes in Alzheimer’s Disease and the aging brain, and to test potential treatments for Alzheimer’s Disease.

Using SPECT imaging of the Dopamine transporter, van Dyck’s work has shown that there is loss of dopamine from the aging striatum,, and that this is related to a slowing of reaction time, , a measure of mental chronometry.

Dr. van Dyck uses PET imaging to track Alzheimer’s-related pathology, to learn how pathology relates to ApoEApoE genotype, and whether it is diminished by potential treatments. Dr. van Dyck has collaborated with Dr. Richard Carson at the Yale PET Center to test the new PET ligand 11C-UCB-J, which binds to SV2A to provide an assay of presynaptic axon terminals in the human brain. Studies of this ligand in early Alzheimer’s Disease patients have shown a loss of synapses from the perforant path, the connections between the entorhinal cortex and hippocampal formation needed for memory consolidation.

Dr. van Dyck and the Yale ADRU have tested potential Alzheimer’s therapeutics for over 20 years. They have contributed to the successful development of memantinememantine now in use for the treatment of mid-late stage Alzheimer’s Disease,, and assess potential new therapeutic strategies, e.g. antibodies that reduce amyloid pathology such as Crenezumab , and based on the work of Dr. Steven Strittmatter, an inhibitor of fyn.

Dr. van Dyck serves on the Steering Committees of the National Institute on Aging Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS) and the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). He serves as co-Director of the Yale Alzheimer's Disease Research Center with Dr. Strittmatter, and is Director of the Division of Aging and Geriatric Psychiatry at Yale. Dr. van Dyck is the Chair of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Council of the Connecticut chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. He received the "Compassion and Cure" Award from the Alzheimer's Association in 2005.

Personal life

Christopher Hans van Dyck was born in Wichita, Kansas on August 25, 1955 to Barbara Kroll Dyck and Walter Dyck. He grew up in Johnston and Underhill, Vermont with his brothers Peter and Tim, and attended Burlington High School. He received his B.A. from Yale University in 1978 and his M.D. from Northwestern School of Medicine in 1984 and then returned to Yale for a residency in Psychiatry. Chris married neuroscientist Amy F.T. Arnsten, in 1987, and they have two children, James Raphael van Dyck (born 1987), and Laura Isabella Torrance van Dyck (born 1992).

Chess

Chris was an avid Correspondence Chess player. In 1992, Chris won the ICCM title International Correspondence Chess Master, winning the 1979 Absolute. His games from this tournament have been published, including in Alex Dunne’s Modern Postal Masterpieces.