Genetically Defined AMD

AMD is a progressive retinal disease affecting older adults and is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the western world. Symptoms, which include blurry vision, loss of night vision and loss of central vision, make activities of daily living such as reading, driving and even recognizing faces progressively more difficult.

From Genetics, a New Path Forward

Dry AMD results from an interaction environmental and genetic risk factors. Approximately 70% of attributable risk of advanced dry AMD is due to heritability, while aging and smoking confer the strongest non-genetic risk. Research over the last decade has uncovered multiple genetic variants which can increase the risk of developing advanced AMD by up to 20-fold.