Linda D. Hazlett (aa4536)
University information
Contact information
Academy of Scholars
Distinguished Professor Linda D. Hazlett, Chair of the Anatomy and Cell Biology Department (1995-present) is the recipient of a Charles Gershenson Distinguised Faculty Fellowship (1989) recipient of the first Interdisciplinary Program Development award (1991), a Graduate Program Enhancement Award (2004) and a member of the Academy of Scholars (2002-present). She also chaired the National Advisory Eye Council Corneal Diseases Program Planning Committee (1989-1991), chartering a 5 year plan for the National Eye Institute in her area of expertise, and was a member of Visual Sciences A study section (1990-94), chairing that group from 1992-1994. She is a member of the Michigan Eye Bank and Transplantation Review board (1996-present), and co-chaired the School of Medicine Strategic Planning Research Committee (2008). Her area of research expertise, bacterial infections of the cornea, continues to be well supported by R01 and P30 grants from the NIH, as well as contract support from CIBA Vision. She has published 150 peer reviewed research articles and 19 book chapters.
Ophthalmology, Visual and Anatomical Sciences
Department Vice-Chair
Department: ( 313) 577-1061
Laboratory: (313) 577-1079
Dr. Hazlett studies the role of the host response to bacterial infection of the cornea. She has specifically focused recently on multi-drug resistance and treatment using various compounds such as glycyrrhizin which targets high mobility group box 1, an amplifier of inflammation. Her goal is to better understand the disease of bacterial keratitis, in which inflammation, if uncontrolled, is deleterious and to develop rational intervention therapies that have clinical relevance. She also is currently focused on the effects of particulate exposure (PM10) on disruption of corneal homeostasis through the particulates’ induction of reactive oxygen species and the impact of that on response to bacterial infection of the cornea. She employs both in vitro and in vivo models, and numerous experimental approaches.
Dr. Hazlett has oversight of four course-directors who provide leadership for Year I medical student teaching (56% of Year I, or 1,700 contact hours in medical student teaching) and 2 graduate course directors. She meets with them as a group to assess teaching progress, course development, planning, teaching assignments and faculty performance. She provides mentorship to junior as well as senior faculty in her department, with particular emphasis on grant writing and editing. She also serves as Vice Dean for Research and Graduate Programs in the School of Medicine.
Research Educator, Full time, PhD
• Distinguished Professor (2008-present) Wayne State University
• The Robert S. Jampel MD, PhD Endowed Chair in Ophthalmology (2018-present)
• Vice Chair of Ophthalmology, Visual and Anatomical Sciences (2018-present)
• The Knopper Family Endowed Research Fund (2019-present)
• Vice Dean Research and Graduate Programs (2016-present)
• Awarded NEI Core Center Vision (P30EY04068) grant, 2019-2024; $2.9 million total costs)
• R01 EY016058 funded (2019-2024), “Attacking the Global Problem of Multi-Drug Resistance”
• AEVR-NAEVR Board (2015-2021); Vice President 2020-21
• Member, Academy of Scholars, Wayne State University (2002-present)
• ARVO Fellow: Gold medal level (2009)
• Alcon Research Award (2012)
• Associate Editor, 2015-present Journal of Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics
• Szliter, E., Lighvani, S., Barrett, R.P., and Hazlett, L.D. VIP balances pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in the P. aeruginosa infected cornea and protects against corneal perforation. J. Immunol., 178:1105-1114, 2007.
• Wu, M., McClellan, S. A., Barrett, R. P., and Hazlett, L.D. Beta-defensin 2 promotes resistance against infection with P. aeruginosa. J. Immunol., 182:1609-1616, 2009.
• Hazlett, L. D., Q. Li, J. Liu, S. McClellan, W. Du, and R. Barrett. NKT cells are critical to initiate an inflammatory response after Pseudomonas aeruginosa ocular infection in susceptible mice. J. Immunol. 179:1138-1146, 2007.
• Hazlett, L.D.: The Corneal Response to Pseudomonas aeruginosa Infection. Progress in Retinal and Eye Research, 23(1):1-30, 2004 Review article).
School of Medicine
1241 Scott Hall
540 E. Canfield
Detroit, MI
313-577-9553
Fax: 313-577-5494
Linda D. Hazlett, Ph.D., is vice dean for Research for the Wayne State University School of Medicine and vice chair of the Department of Ophthalmology, Visual and Anatomical Sciences.
Dr. Hazlett joined the Wayne State University School of Medicine in 1971, and after a national search was named chair of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology in 1995. In 1989, she was awarded the Charles Gershenson Distinguished Faculty Fellowship by the university. She was the recipient of the university’s first Interdisciplinary Program Development Award in 1991. In 2002 she was inducted into the WSU Academy of Scholars, in 2008 was named distinguished professor and in 2012 received a prestigious Alcon Research Award totaling $100,000 to be used to facilitate her National Institutes of Health R01-supported research.
She has successfully secured additional funding for one of the university’s longest-running grants related to vision research, the P30 Core Vision Center from the National Eye Institute of the NIH. The continuation of this grant for the 2014-2019 period amounts to $2.5 million, and keeps the grant in effect at WSU for 36 years.
She is a member of the American Association of Anatomists, the American Society for Cell Biology, the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, the International Society for Eye Research, the American Society for Microbiology and the American Association of Immunologists. She is a member of the National Alliance for Eye and Vision Research/Alliance for Eye and Vision Research Board.
A widely published researcher, with more than 200 peer reviewed papers and 22 book chapters, Dr. Hazlett’s major research interests are ocular infection and pathogenesis, inflammation, and innate immunity. She holds two provisional patents for treatment of bacterial keratitis.
