drusen

Why age-related macular degeneration is a mathematically tractable disease

Among all prevalent diseases with a central neurodegeneration, AMD can be considered the most promising in terms of prevention and early intervention, due to several factors surrounding the neural geometry of the foveal singularity. • Steep gradients of cell density, deployed in a radially symmetric fashion, can be modeled with a difference of Gaussian curves. • These steep gradients give rise to huge, spatially aligned biologic effects, summarized as the Center of Cone Resilience, Surround of Rod Vulnerability. • Widely used clinical imaging technology provides cellular and subcellular level information. • Data are now available at all timelines: clinical, lifespan, evolutionary • Snapshots are available from tissues (histology, analytic chemistry, gene expression) • A viable biogenesis model exists for drusen, the largest population-level intraocular risk factor for progression. • The biogenesis model shares molecular commonality with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, for which there has been decades of public health success. • Animal and cell model systems are emerging to test these ideas.