Project Details
There are many genes that are linked to the risk of developing age‐related macular degeneration (AMD), but there is still room to discover more. In this proposed project, Drs. Margaret Pericak‐Vance, William Scott, and colleagues will study the DNA of two groups of people that should increase their chances of finding new risk genes. One group has advanced AMD despite not having any of the known risk variants in the genes associated with AMD risk (including CFH and ARMS2) and the other group doesn’t have AMD despite having known risk variants in these genes. These researchers will use new gene reading techniques to look at the “whole exome” or the DNA spelling of the most‐used books in a person’s genetic library. Cataloguing the gene changes in both sets of people with AMD will lead to better understanding of how this disease starts and give clues to future preventions and treatments.