Over 1,000 people are being asked to take part in a major study by Waterford Institute of Technology about blindness in middle-aged people.
The study is the first of its kind in Ireland. It will focus on the centre of the retina, which is known as the macula.
As people get older, the macula can become damaged and can lead to the most common cause of blindness in the Western world.
Around 70,000 people in Ireland have the condition, known as AMD, and up to twice that number may have it undetected.
A new research group has been set up at WIT and it wants 1,000 volunteers aged between 20 and 40 to be monitored over the next 20 years to find out how best to combat this cause of blindness.
