St. Louis, MO – August 26, 2025 – John F. Hardesty, MD, Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences at WashU Medicine is proud to announce that Margret Reynolds, MD, has been awarded a highly competitive K23 Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This award supports early-career clinician-scientists who are committed to patient-oriented research and advancing medical knowledge.
Margaret M. Reynolds’, MD funded project, titled “Refractive Surgery for ASD,” explores an innovative approach to understanding the impact of vision correction on children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
“Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorder associated with impairments in social communication and interaction and restricted and repetitive behaviors,” said Dr. Reynolds. “Face inattention and limited eye contact are well known to afflict these children and likely contribute to the impaired social communication central to this disorder. In our study we are looking at ASD phenotype before and after refractive surgery in a spectacle-intolerant ASD population. Understanding the social and behavioral changes that correlate with improved visual acuity may provide information about the cognitive development of these children, and this understanding may help shed light on the brain-based pathogenesis of ASD.”
Margaret M. Reynolds, MD
The project represents a first-of-its-kind study examining whether improved visual acuity through refractive surgery can influence social communication and behavioral outcomes in children with ASD. By focusing on spectacle-intolerant children, Dr. Reynolds and her team aim to address a gap in both ophthalmology and neurodevelopmental research.
This NIH K23 award not only highlights Dr. Reynolds’ commitment to advancing patient-centered research but also underscores the national importance of investigating novel therapeutic approaches for children with ASD.
About the NIH K23 Award
The NIH Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23) provides support for the career development of investigators who have made a commitment to focus their research endeavors on patient-oriented research. More information is available at NIH K23 Award Overview.
About WashU Medicine
WashU Medicine is a global leader in academic medicine, including biomedical research, patient care and educational programs with 2,900 faculty. Its National Institutes of Health (NIH) research funding portfolio is the second largest among U.S. medical schools and has grown 56% in the last seven years. Together with institutional investment, WashU Medicine commits well over $1 billion annually to basic and clinical research innovation and training. Its faculty practice is consistently within the top five in the country, with more than 1,900 faculty physicians practicing at 130 locations and who are also the medical staffs of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals of BJC HealthCare. WashU Medicine has a storied history in MD/PhD training, recently dedicated $100 million to scholarships and curriculum renewal for its medical students, and is home to top-notch training programs in every medical subspecialty as well as physical therapy, occupational therapy, and audiology and communications sciences.