Though similar in appearance, the hidden cause of those big eyes Little Red Riding Hood notices in Grimms' fairy tale has nothing to do with the hidden cause of enlarged eyeballs in buphthalmia, a genetic mechanism causing this devastating eye disease which has now been uncovered by Dr. Annabel Christ and Prof. Thomas Willnow from the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC). Patients afflicted are severely myopic, or nearsighted.