My interests focus on diseases of the brain including epilepsy, neurodegenerative processes, and neurodevelopmental processes. My clinical expertise focuses on improving the diagnosis of disease using nuclear magnetic resonance methods and clinical trials to assess the efficacy of new therapies for currently untreatable disease. I also have specific interests in epilepsy, vestibular dysfunction and myotonia congenita.

The focus of my lab is to improve the characterization and treatment of neurological diseases by studying naturally-occurring feline and canine models of human diseases. Our lab develops and identifies ante mortem biochemical and nuclear magnetic resonance markers of disease severity and progression and uses these markers to evaluate the efficacy of gene therapy, cell-based therapy, and pharmacotherapy to treat disease.
We currently maintain breeding colonies that produce cats affected with Niemann-Pick type C disease and alpha-mannosidosis, and dogs affected with globoid cell leukodystrophy and mucopolysaccharidoses. We also maintain dogs with naturally occurring epilepsy for which we are evaluating neurophysiologically-based response pharmacotherapy using intracranially EEG. The goal of this work is to develop methods to predict seizure occurrence and to prevent them. We will implant devices and maintain epileptic dogs proposed for use in this study.

Stein, V. M., Crooks, A., Ding, W., Prociuk, M., O'Donnell, P., Bryan, C., Sikora, T., Dingemanse, J., Vanier, M. T., Walkley, S. U., Vite, C. H. Miglustat improves purkinje cell survival and alters microglial phenotype in feline Niemann-Pick disease type C J Neuropathol Exp Neurol 71: 434-48, 2012.

Brinkmalm, G., Portelius, E., Ohrfelt, A., Mattsson, N., Persson, R., Gustavsson, M. K., Vite, C. H., Gobom, J., Mansson, J. E., Nilsson, J., Halim, A., Larson, G., Ruetschi, U., Zetterberg, H., Blennow, K., Brinkmalm, A. An online nano-LC-ESI-FTICR-MS method for comprehensive characterization of endogenous fragments from amyloid beta and amyloid precursor protein in human and cat cerebrospinal fluid J Mass Spectrom 47: 591-603, 2012.

Mattsson, N., Olsson, M., Gustavsson, M. K., Kosicek, M., Malnar, M., Mansson, J. E., Blomqvist, M., Gobom, J., Andreasson, U., Brinkmalm, G., Vite, C., Hecimovic, S., Hastings, C., Blennow, K., Zetterberg, H., Portelius, E. Amyloid-beta metabolism in Niemann-Pick C disease models and patients Metab Brain Dis : , 2012.

Vite, C. H., Wang, P., Patel, R. T., Walton, R. M., Walkley, S. U., Sellers, R. S., Ellinwood, N. M., Cheng, A. S., White, J. T., O'Neill, C. A., Haskins, M. Biodistribution and pharmacodynamics of recombinant human alpha-L-iduronidase (rhIDU) in mucopolysaccharidosis type I-affected cats following multiple intrathecal administrations Mol Genet Metab 103: 268-74, 2011.

Davis, K. A., Sturges, B. K., Vite, C. H., Ruedebusch, V., Worrell, G., Gardner, A. B., Leyde, K., Sheffield, W. D., Litt, B. A novel implanted device to wirelessly record and analyze continuous intracranial canine EEG Epilepsy Res 96: 116-22, 2011.

Lewis, M. J., Williams, D. C., Vite, C. H. Evaluation of the electroencephalogram in young cats Am J Vet Res 72: 391-7, 2011.

Vite, C. H., Cross, J. R. Correlating magnetic resonance findings with neuropathology and clinical signs in dogs and cats Vet Radiol Ultrasound 52: S23-31, 2011.

Ward, S., O'Donnell, P., Fernandez, S., Vite, C. H. 2-hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin raises hearing threshold in normal cats and in cats with Niemann-Pick type C disease Pediatr Res 68: 52-56, 2010.

Magnitsky, S., Vite, C. H., Delikatny, E. J., Pickup, S., Wehrli, S., Wolfe, J. H., Poptani, H. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the occipital cortex and the cerebellar vermis distinguishes individual cats affected with alpha-mannosidosis from normal cats NMR Biomed 23: 74-9, 2010.

Porter, F. D., Scherrer, D. E., Lanier, M. H., Langmade, S. J., Molugu, V., Gale, S. E., Olzeski, D., Sidhu, R., Dietzen, D. J., Fu, R., Wassif, C. A., Yanjanin, N. M., Marso, S. P., House, J., Vite, C., Schaffer, J. E., Ory, D. S. Cholesterol oxidation products are sensitive and specific blood-based biomarkers for Niemann-Pick C1 disease Sci Transl Med 2: 56ra81, 2010.

B.S. Cornell University, 1986

DVM Purdue University, 1990

PhD University of Pennsylvania, 2003