He was one of the first to use gene transfer to study how molecules that promote or retard blood clotting also play a role in the development of blood vessel diseases. His laboratory uses transgenic mice to investigate the genetic basis of cardiovascular disease.

Prior to joining the UW School of Medicine, Dichek was a professor of medicine/cardiology at the University of California at San Francisco. He was also an investigator at the Cardiovascular Research Institute and the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease at UCSF. The Locke Chair was established in 1994 to enable the UW to attract and retain a distinguished faculty member in cardiovascular medicine, one recognized by his or her peers as outstanding in the field of cardiovascular research and treatment and whose research activities hold considerable promise for furthering this field of investigation.