Molecular analysis of proteins involved in certain eye diseases

Blindness is the most tragic, yet often avoidable, disability of people in thedeveloping world. The personal, social and economic consequence ofblindness has become an important public health issue, especially inunderdeveloped and developing countries. In response to the global need, theWorld Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for thePrevention of Blindness (IAPB), along with various national organizationshave come together with the common aim of tackling avoidable forms ofblindness worldwide and have created a global movement called Vision 2020:The Right to Sight. This initiative's mission is to eliminate the main causes ofavoidable blindness by the year 2020. A recent estimate by the WHO,released in 2004, has claimed that nearly 37 million people around the worldwere blind that includes 1.4 million children under the age of 15 years(Resnikoff et al., 2004). The WHO report also suggests that 75% of blindnessis caused by four specific age-related conditions such as cataract, glaucoma,age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. Cataract is aleading cause of blindness, which accounts for 47.8% of total blindness,followed by glaucoma (12.3%), age-related macular degeneration (8.7%) anddiabetic retinopathy (4.8%).