Research and clinical trials are essential for the development of new and better therapies for macular degeneration.

The Duke Center for Macular Diseases has been a leader in research and development for AMD for over thirty years. Important basic science research is conducted in the Duke Eye Center laboratories by scientists focused on learning more about why macular degeneration occurs. Duke scientists and physicians are also leaders in AMD clinical research and clinical trials investigating potential new treatments for this disease.

Overview

Basic science research is critical for the further understanding of why AMD occurs. In basic science research, doctors and researchers perform laboratory research to investigate the molecular basis of AMD.

Although we have learned much about AMD over the past few decades, we are still at the tip of the iceberg in our knowledge on this complex disease. Researchers at Duke are actively pursuing new AMD knowledge that will play a significant role in the AMD cures of tomorrow.

Catherine Bowes Rickman, PhD at the Duke Eye Center is leading a team of researchers that has made great strides in identifying the genes expressed in important vision cells (the cone photoreceptors) and is determining the role that these genes play in degenerative retinal diseases like AMD. Bowes Rickman believes that this research will contribute to our basic understanding of cone photoreceptor biology and the changes that take place through degenerative disease processes. These findings may lay the groundwork to develop therapies that prolong cone photoreceptor survival in macular degeneration and, ultimately, prolong sight.

Other projects underway in the Bowes Rickman lab study the effect of known major risk factors of AMD in a new animal model of AMD. Presently, the combined effects of age, diet and a known genetic modifier, APOE on the integrity of the retina are being examined. To date, there are no good animal models of AMD. However, the evidence accumulating on these animals suggests that they may provide insight into the pathological mechanisms of AMD as well as serve as a model to test discoveries made in humans and to develop therapies.