Posted on July 9, 2001 at 4:06 p.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Christine Curcio, Ph.D., associate professor of ophthalmology at UAB (the University of Alabama at Birmingham), has been granted a $55,000 RPB Lew R. Wasserman Merit Award by Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB). Established in 1995, the RPB Lew R. Wasserman Merit awards provide unrestricted support to mid-career M.D. and Ph.D. scientists who hold primary positions within departments of ophthalmology and who are actively engaged in eye research at medical institutions in the United States. Curcio is one of 59 scientists at 30 institutions who have been honored with the award.

Curcio’s research is focused on understanding the basis and progression of age-related macular degeneration (ARMD), the leading cause of new, untreatable vision loss in the elderly in the industrialized world. Curcio has established a collection of human tissues at different stages of macular degeneration. This collection gives Curcio a rare and valuable research tool to better understand the progression of the disease. Her current work seeks to determine the role of cholesterol in ARMD development.

“UAB is proud of Dr. Curcio’s research related to ARMD,” says Dr. Lanning Kline, professor and chair of the department of ophthalmology. “This important award from RPB is recognition of her outstanding work.”

RPB is the world’s leading voluntary organization supporting eye research. Since it was founded in 1960, RPB has channeled hundreds of millions of dollars to medical institutions throughout the United States for research into all blinding eye diseases.