Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a blinding disorder which affects millions of elderly people worldwide. AMD etiology is still not completely understood, and treatments for the most common form of the disease, geographic atrophy, are lacking. There are many animal models for AMD. Yet, no single model completely recapitulates the disorder. Cell culture models are another method used to recreate certain aspects of the disease. However, cell-based "disease-in-a-dish" models are currently not well developed. This dissertation focuses on the development and applications of new cell culture based models for macular degeneration.