Bikash Pattnaik, PhD, was awarded $50,000 from the University of Wisconsin-Institute of Clinical and Translational Research (UW-ICTR), funded by the National Institutes of Health, for his project, “Human RPE cell electrophysiology to model eye-disease.” This project utilizes stem cells to record functional ion channels in human RPE cells and determine the mechanism by which a mutant inwardly rectifying potassium (Kir) channel in these cells causes inherited blinding eye disease.