AUTHOR=Nguyen Tu , Urrutia-Cabrera Daniel , Liou Roxanne Hsiang-Chi , Luu Chi D. , Guymer Robyn , Wong Raymond Ching-Bong TITLE=New Technologies to Study Functional Genomics of Age-Related Macular Degeneration JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology VOLUME=8 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cell-and-developmental-biology/articles/10.3389/fcell.2020.604220 DOI=10.3389/fcell.2020.604220 ISSN=2296-634X ABSTRACT=

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause of irreversible vision loss in people over 50 years old in developed countries. Currently, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of the genetic factors contributing to AMD, which is critical to identify effective therapeutic targets to improve treatment outcomes for AMD patients. Here we discuss the latest technologies that can facilitate the identification and functional study of putative genes in AMD pathology. We review improved genomic methods to identify novel AMD genes, advances in single cell transcriptomics to profile gene expression in specific retinal cell types, and summarize recent development of in vitro models for studying AMD using induced pluripotent stem cells, organoids and biomaterials, as well as new molecular technologies using CRISPR/Cas that could facilitate functional studies of AMD-associated genes.