Abstract
Purpose :
Significant advances in DNA sequencing and internet based data exchange tis a hallmark of the 4th Industrial Revolution. Decades of eye genetic research has shown that genetic variation underpins the etiology of eye diseases. These genetic involvements can be highly penetrant as in Mendelian eye diseases or highly associated as risk factors in common eye diseases. In both cases, a patient genome sequence is quickly determined and traced within a family or compared with millions of other genome sequences collected around the world and stored in a database. However, most of the information originates from those of European decent and information on other ethnic groups is limited. The Asian Eye Genetics Consortium (AEGC, http://asianeyegenetics.org) was established to focus on eye research in Asia, the most populated region of the world where this information on genetic eye diseases is limited.
Methods :
Approximately one hundred eye researchers from Asian countries are currently interacting and collaborating to develop programs to share, catalogue and collaboratively work to identify the genetic aspects of eye diseases. AEGC has the following goals and plans:
1. Share genetic information in the Asian population to rapidly identify common disease-associated variants
2. Establish a system for accurate diagnosis and grouping of Asian eye diseases
3. Establish a system for cost effective genetic analysis
4. Develop a research-oriented database to collect, diagnose and catalog eye diseases in Asia
5. Support and foster collaboration among Asian countries for the advancement of research providing genetic information to the Asian population
6. Collaborate with other international or regional organizations with similar goals
7. Organize and hold regional congresses and other educational and scientific activities to promote the goals of the consortium
Results :
Eye Institutions and Hospitals from 17 countries including Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, and USA are involved.
Conclusions :
The consortium has brought a collective thinking and ideas from the researchers around the world who have an interest in genetic eye research in the Asian region.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.