BrightFocus Foundation
BrightFocus Foundation

Novel Genetic Model of Choroidal Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Principal Investigator

Co-Principal Investigator

Project Goals

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is easily becoming the number one cause of blindness in the world today. A major problem in finding a cure is not knowing what causes the disease and not having a good model system to use for testing a therapy. In this study, we utilize a novel genetic model that recapitulates the blood vessel defect known as choroidal neovascularization, which refers to the new growth of fragile, leaky blood vessels seen in “wet” AMD patients. If successful, this will give us a powerful tool to identify factors that can cause this disease outcome, help us understand the disease process, and serve as a model to test therapies.

Publications

Hasegawa E, Sweigard H, Husain D, Olivares AM, Chang B, Smith KE, Birsner AE, D'Amato RJ, Michaud NA, Han Y, Vavvas DG, Miller JW, Haider NB, Connor KM. Characterization of a spontaneous retinal neovascular mouse model. PLoS One. 2014 Sep 4;9(9):e106507. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0106507. eCollection 2014. PubMed PubMed Icon Google Scholar Icon
 

First published on: July 09, 2014

Last modified on: May 03, 2024