For two decades, scientists have suspected that genes may play a role in the development of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness in the developed world.Now researchers have found that mutations in a specific gene are sometimes associated with the vision-robbing disease."This gene causes 1.7 percent of what a well-trained clinician would call ‘typical’ macular degeneration,” said Dr. Edwin M. Stone, director of the Center for Macular Degeneration at the University of Iowa. His report appears in the July 22 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
