An AMD treasure trove publication and new strength for OVS.

and New Strength for OVS This month, Optometry and Vision Science (OVS ) proudly presents a very special theme issue on age-related macular degeneration (AMD). As our understanding of both dry and wet AMD is accelerating, and potential treatment options are rapidly expanding, we thought it would be timely to look at the most recent research, both laboratory and clinical, and bring it together in a single issue dedicated to the topic. Age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of severe vision loss in older people, with almost 15% of the population older than 80 years worldwide having AMD. Research has given us new hope for possible prevention and treatment, and technological advances have made it feasible to do much more for those who have lost sight from AMD and who want to maximize their residual vision. Optometry and Vision Science is most fortunate to put together a team of Guest Editors who, themselves, are making impressive contributions in this area and who, in their Guest Editorial, give us a superb insider’s view to the many advances in AMD research, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation. They, and our authors, take us into the exciting world of stem cells, genetics, and advances in technology and imaging that offer new promise for those who have lost vision. We learn of the promise of these fields for advancing AMD care and knowledge. Our own OVS Board member, Erica Fletcher, who is conducting leading edge research in AMD and diabetes with animal models, brought the team together. She enjoys an international reputation as being at the forefront, as do her four other Guest Editors. Erica is a past Academy Borish Awardee and an incoming Fellow this November. Erica has been ably supported by Susana Chung (University of California [UC] Berkeley, California) and three of Erica’s colleagues from the University of Melbourne, Australia, where many exciting research advances are taking place. Erica Fletcher, OD, PhD, FAAO Candidate, is an Associate Professor and Reader (tenured) in the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience at the University of Melbourne. She was the Academy’s 2006 Irvin M. Borish Award winner given for exceptional promise as a clinician researcher. And as noted, she is a current OVS Board member. That promise was certainly fulfilled and today she enjoys an international reputation as a leading international researcher who is unraveling the basic science mysteries of AMD in the context of problems that are important for clinicians for care of AMD patients. After her optometry training and her PhD at the University of Melbourne (1997), Erica completed postdoctoral training with Prof. Dr. Heinz Wässle at the Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, Germany. For more than 10 years, her wellfunded retinal cell biology research laboratory at her home institution has focused on understanding the factors that exacerbate photoreceptor death in inherited retinal degenerations and AMD. Her laboratory is a contributor to the large Australian governmentY funded consortium to develop an electronic retinal implant. Susana Chung, OD, PhD, FAAO, is a full Professor of Optometry and Vision Science in the School of Optometry at UC Berkeley. She, too, is a current OVS Board member and led the recent OVS Feature Issue on Low Vision (Optom Vis Sci September 2012, Volume 89, Issue 9). Susana was the 2012 Glenn A Fry Awardee and published her award lecture in OVS (June 2013). Susana enjoys a well-deserved international reputation in the field of low vision and her research has been well funded through the National Institutes of Health. Susana completed her clinical training in Hong Kong and her PhD at the University of Houston. She followed that with postdoctoral training at the University of Minnesota with 2013 Academy Prentice Medalist Gordon Legge. Before her appointment as an associate professor at UC Berkeley in 2008, she had faculty appointments at Indiana University and the University of Houston. Laura Downie is a relatively recent graduate OD (2003) and PhD (2008) who has already shown exceptional scholarly talent and promise. In fact, Laura will receive the 2014 Irvin M. Borish Award in Denver this November 2014. She has a wide range of clinical and basic science interests, especially in evidence-based clinical practice, and is a keen scholar in the area of AMD. In this theme Feature Issue, she leads with the ‘‘Editors Choice’’ paper on the evidence-based literature on treatments for AMD; it is a designated paper that is free to readers (they are granted immediate open access) anywhere in the world. She also coauthored a second paper on color vision function in AMD in this issue of OVS. Laura is Lecturer and the Director of Cornea and Contact Lenses in the Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences at the University of Melbourne. She is recognized as a leader in ocular disease and contact lenses in Australia. Robyn Guymer, MD, PhD, FRANZCO, is a well-established international researcher in AMD. Leaders in the field frequently cite her work. Prof. Robyn Guymer is a medical retinal specialist at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, and is Head of the Macular Research Unit at the Centre for Eye Research Australia, which she established in 1997 at the University of Melbourne. She is also Deputy Head of the Department of Ophthalmology, University of Melbourne. After her PhD at the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Prof. Robyn Guymer undertook ophthalmology training in Melbourne and then completed a 2-year medical retinal fellowship at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, under Prof. Alan Bird. 1040-5488/14/9108-0813/0 VOL. 91, NO. 8, PP. 813Y815 OPTOMETRY AND VISION SCIENCE Copyright * 2014 American Academy of Optometry