Overview of sessions in English

Despite intense and ground-breaking work on the genetic factors associated with AMD, no efficacious treatment has been found for dry AMD and its late-stage form geographic atrophy. There has been a focus on targeting the alternative complement pathway but clinical trials have failed so far. Extensive genetic as well as epidemiological studies have not revealed promising new targets or treatment strategies. Moreover, the late onset of the disease and the variability in the natural history of patients make disease prediction as well as clinical trial design challenging. This symposium will present a critical discourse on our current understanding of AMD with an emphasis on pathobiology, computational approaches and systems biology. Concepts, ideas and limitations that likely determine future directions for new treatments will be discussed.