Dr. Benjamin K. Young from Casey Eye Institute Awarded $90,000 Knights Templar Eye Foundation Grant for Retinopathy of Prematurity Progression Kinetics Research

Dr. Benjamin K. Young from the Casey Eye Institute, Oregon Health & Sciences University, Portland, Oregon was awarded a $90,000 grant entitled: Retinopathy of Prematurity Progression Kinetics.

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a potentially irreversible cause of vision loss in infants. When born premature, their retinal blood vessels are not yet fully developed, and must continue developing as they mature. Sometimes, this can result in abnormalities in how the vessels grow, ultimately leading to irreversible vision loss.

Therefore, the standard practice is to screen all at-risk infants to observe how their vessels develop. However, due in part to limitations in camera technology and previous assumptions, there is an incomplete understanding of the precise rate of vessel development, or the progression of vascular changes as ROP develops. Therefore, relatively crude estimates have been used of how far the vessels have grown to make clinical decisions. Because there is now access to cutting edge cameras which can produce 3D representations of the retina and vessels with high resolution, Dr. Young aims to precisely define the rate of vessel growth in prematurity and ROP, as well as characterize microvascular changes at the edge of ROP, with the goal to provide novel avenues to predict disease.