Posted on May 16, 2002 at 2:00 p.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Christine Curcio, Ph.D., professor of ophthalmology at UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham), has been named the recipient of the first Roger H. Johnson Macular Degeneration Prize. The prize, established by Dr. Roger Johnson, clinical professor emeritus in ophthalmology at the University of Washington, is intended to stimulate clinical and basic science research into causes and treatments for age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of untreatable vision loss in the elderly.

Curcio will receive a cash prize of $40,000 and deliver the Roger H. Johnson Macular Degeneration Lecture on June 2 at the University of Washington, Seattle. The prize will fund equipment in her laboratory to study cholesterol processing and release by the retinal pigment epithelium in vitro.

“I began my career in vision research at the University of Washington 18 years ago, so I’m honored to be the recipient of the first Roger Johnson prize,” said Curcio. “It is fortunate that macular degeneration, for which there is no truly effective treatment, is receiving heightened interest from the scientific community and from generous benefactors like Dr. Johnson.”

The prize, which is open to all clinicians and scientists in the world, is bestowed on the clinician or scientist who is deemed by the selection committee to have made the most significant contribution to the study of macular degeneration, as evidenced by at least one scientific paper published in the peer-reviewed literature between July 1999 and August 2001.

Dr. Johnson, who practiced in Seattle for more than 40 years, calls macular degeneration a scourge and hopes the prize will spur research and ultimately lead to viable therapies for the disease.