Drs. Christine Curcio, Jean Bennett, Albert Maguire, and Baruch Kuppermann at the 2022 Future Vision AwardsDr. Christine Curcio has been selected as one of four recipients of the Future Vision Foundation’s 2022 Laureate Award. The Future Vision Foundation (FVF) is a non-profit organization co-founded by Cleveland-based, world-renowned ophthalmologist Dr. Suber Huang to showcase the work of extraordinary medical innovators who are making breakthroughs in vision research to restore vision or to prevent vision loss. Each year, FVF selects a group of researchers who have each made an incredible impact on the vision sciences community and highlights them with documentary-style films to celebrate and promote their contributions.
Dr. Curcio’s film focuses on her work as a veritable hope machine. With close to 40 years of research under her belt, Dr. Curcio has been able to bring hope to patients suffering from age-related macular degeneration (AMD). AMD is an eye disease that damages the macula, the part of the eye that controls sharp straight-ahead vision, which causes blurring in your central vision. AMD is a leading cause of vision loss for older adults and was once considered a hopeless disease. After years of research, Dr. Curcio was able to see and isolate the effects of AMD in the retina. In her own words, "If we can see it, we can treat it". With the help of her husband, Dr. Kenneth Sloan, a computer scientist, they were able to use the combined power of computer technology and microscopes to further dive into the retina and AMD.
Dr. Curcio has collaborated with many other scientists and ophthalmologists over the years to get a clearer picture of AMD and to develop new technologies and machines that will help detect and monitor the progression of the disease. Some of her key findings include demonstrating that rod photoreceptors die before cones in aging and AMD and discovering and characterizing lipoproteins of ocular origin that constitute the main pathway of soft drusen, AMD’s pathognomonic lesions. Dr. Curcio also contributed the first comprehensive histological description of subretinal drusenoid deposits, a previously unrecognized layer of AMD pathology. Because of her work, today's AMD patients have a more hopeful outlook.
The awards ceremony was held Saturday, November 12, 2022, at the Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, Ohio. At the ceremony, the full-length documentary by Emmy Award-winning videographer and editor Lance Halloway was shared along with films honoring Baruch Kuppermann, MD, PhD, and Jean Bennett, MD, PhD, and Albert Maguire, MD. Dr. Kuppermann is Director of the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute at the University of California, Irvine, and has spent his professional career making significant breakthroughs in the understanding and treatment of retinal diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic macular edema. The husband-wife duo of Drs. Bennett and Maguire are with the Scheie Eye Institute and have spent decades developing the first FDA-approved gene therapy for successfully treating the eye disorder Leber congenital amaurosis. The full-length films for each honored researcher are available on the Future Vision Foundation website.