Curcio focuses on aging and age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the third largest cause of vision loss worldwide. She has partnered for 25 years with the Alabama Eye Bank, a large eye bank and industry leader in rapid tissue recovery for research. 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. She contributed the first comprehensive histological description of subretinal drusenoid deposit, a previously unrecognized layer of AMD pathology.

She created an open access web-based digital microscope of AMD histopathology, www.projectmacula.