A University of Wisconsin vision scientist has been awarded a prestigious global fellowship to investigate new therapies for rare inherited blindness.
Bikash Pattnaik, PhD, MPHIL, has been named a 2025-2028 VAIshwik BHArtiya Vaigyanik (VAIBHAV) fellow by the Indian government’s Ministry of Science and Technology. This highly competitive fellowship underscores the University of Wisconsin—Madison’s leading role in ophthalmic research worldwide.
“I am humbled and deeply honored to represent UW-Madison as a VAIBHAV fellow,” said Dr. Pattnaik. “This fellowship reflects the idea that science transcends borders, uniting us as global citizens in our quest for knowledge and discovery. Together, we aim to bring hope to those with rare and ultra-rare conditions, proving that no disease is too rare to matter.”
Dr. Pattnaik, an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and affiliate faculty member with the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, will collaborate with colleagues from the Indian Institute of Technology in Hyderabad, the LV Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad, and the National Institute of Science Education and Research in Bhubaneswar. Their joint efforts will focus on exploring novel therapies for combating both acquired and inherited blindness.
Inherited diseases – those passed down from parent to child- are rare and result from genetic mutations. Dr. Bikash’s collaborative research strives to understand how these genetic changes cause blindness. The first step is to look at the protein Transient Receptor Potential Cation Channel Subfamily M Member 1 (TRPMI).
“TRPM1 is a protein important for how our eyes turn light into signals that the brain can understand,” said Dr. Pattnaik. “When light hits the eyes, TRPM1 helps let calcium into certain eye cells, starting a process that sends visual information to the brain. Mutations in the TRPM1 gene can cause night blindness.”
Dr. Bikash and his collaborators will also study the impact of Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE), a condition caused by reduced blood flow and oxygen, on the brain and inner retina.
“We believe that the lack of oxygen in the inner retina leads to cell damage and death,” explained Dr. Pattnaik. “We will use a multielectrode array – a grid of small sensors – to study how HIE affects the electrical activity of retinal cells and how they communicate with one another.”
The hope is that this research will lead to better diagnoses of inherited diseases and new therapies, including expanded genetic counseling and genome editing.
“Developing such therapies takes time, global collaboration, rigorous testing, and clinical and regulatory approval before they become widely available,” said Dr. Pattnaik. “This fellowship makes global collaboration in the search for answers possible.”
The award runs from April 1, 2025, to March 31, 2028. Initial funding will cover travel, local research, and living expenses for at least one month to help facilitate program development. Dr. Pattnaik intends to travel to India to conduct research sometime in late 2025.