Olachi Mezu-Ndubuisi, MD, OD, assistant professor, Neonatology and Newborn Nursery, was recently awarded a five-year K08 Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health/National Eye Institute in the amount of $1,221,730. The award will provide Mezu-Ndubuisi with salary support and protected research time for her project, “Mechanism of intravitreal VEGF-A165a and topical calcitriol for the treatment of retinopathy of prematurity.” This project will explore the most effective and least toxic dose of intravitreal vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) microparticles in Phase 2 of Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP). It will also study the molecular mechanisms by which VEGF-A165a and calcitriol regulate angiogenic signaling in ROP. Mezu-Ndubuisi will be supported by primary mentor Nader Sheibani, PhD, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, and mentor Lois Smith, PhD, MD, professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School.