Bikash Pattnaik, PhD, was just awarded a grant of $47,856 from the Meriter Foundation for his 1-year project, “The Role of Birth-Related Hormones in Retinopathy of Prematurity.” As advances in neonatal care have improved survival and reduced the prevalence of other problems, an increasing number of infants live to develop visual impairment or blindness. This project will study the effect of birth hormones on retinal cell maturity at various stages of development, with the specific goal being to identify the underlying cellular pathways that lead to retinal maturation.