Genetics of age-related macular degeneration

There have been major advances over the past two years in identifying genetic risks for age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The complexity of genetic association and genetic epidemiology studies and differences in the conclusions and data reported from various laboratories make it difficult for the general scientific reader to understand the significance and limitations of these advances. Thus, the scientific foundations and limitations of these genetic studies are not widely understood. The general scientific reader needs an approach to recognize spurious genetic association from those that are real and to understand what genetic association studies can teach us about AMD and where we need to be cautious. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the genetics of AMD and explain how to approach a genetic association study.