Professor Calvin C. P. Pang, S.H. Ho Professor of Visual Sciences and Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, gave a keynote lecture “New Genes of Complex Retinal Diseases” in the prestigious NIH – Global Health Vision Lecture on 15^thMay 2017 at the NIH Main Campus, Maryland, USA.

The lecture was webcast by National Eye Institute (NEI) to all parts of the world for online discussion. Prof Pang presented that retinal diseases are caused by many genes and environmental factors. According to Prof Pang, polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV), which is potentially blinding and whose early symptoms include blurred or dim vision is one example. It develops at a younger age in Asians than in Caucasians and is more common in Asian men than Asian women. Prof Pang presented that scientists are now using large studies correlating mutations to clinical outcomes, in order to identify the genes underlying these complex diseases – and the genes that account for differences in incidence and severity of the diseases in different populations.