A preview of the emerging health care companies profiled in the current issue of Start-Up. This month's profile group, "Biotechs Eye Macular Degeneration," features profiles of Acucela, Iconic Therapeutics, MacuCLEAR, Ophthotech, Optherion and Sirion Therapeutics. "Scoping Out Gastroenterology Start-Ups" features profiles of invendo medical, Mauna Kea Technologies and Softscope Medical Technologies. Plus these Start-Ups Across Health Care: Bone Solutions, Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals, Savara and VasoNova.

Based on a growing understanding of the genetics of age-related macular degeneration and its association with the immune system, Optherion is developing a treatment that it hopes may prevent the disease from progressing into its most serious and debilitating 'wet' form.

Spurred by the commercial success of Lucentis, start-ups developing new therapeutics for AMD tap into a growing understanding of the pathogenesis of the disease. In this issue, we profile five emerging AMD drug developers: Acucela, Iconic Therapeutics, MacuCLEAR, Ophthotech, Optherion and Sirion Therapeutics.

Ophthotech is creating drugs to be used in combination with anti-VEGF therapies for wet AMD. It is developing inhibitors of platelet-derived growth factor and the a5b1 integrin, as well as an anti-C5 receptor aptamer that could eventually be a therapy for both wet and dry forms of age-related macular degeneration.