Recent studies have identified molecules that are significantly associated with retinal vascular diseases, including the rs942813 genomic variant in AMD, the RLBP1, HIC1, and PARP12 genes in AMD, proteomic biomarkers such as IL-2/-5/-18/-13, TNF, and MMP-2/-3/-9, metabolomic variants such as C3DC and glycine in ROP, epigenomic variants such as hypomethylated ETS1 and HES5 in DR, and some altered microbes including norank_f_Muribaculaceae, Prevotellaceae_NK3B31, and Candidatus_Saccharimonas in CNV. The gene discussed is HES5; the disease is retinopathy of prematurity.