My research complements my clinical practice: age-related macular degeneration (AMD) (the commonest cause of blindness in the Western world). It focuses on the pathogenesis and treatments of AMD and other chronic eye diseases (clinical and laboratory). The current treatments are suboptimal. As the population ages, the prevalence of AMD will increase. My research aims to improve disease outcomes. There are no suitable animal or in vitro models for AMD. My laboratory is the first to have cultured, in vitro, human inner choroidal endothelial cells (the site of the disease) for experiments relating to this disease. We are currently in the process of determining the genomic differences between these cells and other endothelial cells in the eye and from other locations (e.g., HUVEC) in order to determine molecular targeting. Some of our work has been in collaboration with a laboratory at King's College London, which has expertise in microarrays and supporting validating technologies. AMD seems less common in Africa. The genetic and environmental factors that contribute to these differences require elucidation. Ongoing collaborations with the Queen's University of Belfast, the University of Iowa and Utah, and the University of Ghana Medical School are looking at genetic differences between Africans and Caucasians in the pathogenesis of AMD.