Dr Hazell has taught biomedical science since 2008 to a range students enrolled in health related subjects at Charles Sturt University or the University of Newcastle. Her teaching qualifications include a Graduate Certificate in Adult Education through the University of Technology, Sydney.  She also has a Certificate IV in Assessment and Training.

Dr Hazell enjoys making difficult scientific concepts accessible to students from a range of backgrounds.  She develops computer-assisted learning tasks and physical activities to assist in this process.

The concept of allostatic load relates to those resources that are required to compensate for things that are not ideal for the organism (e.g., too hot, not enough water, potential threats in the environment, injury, etc.).  Allostatic load may influence the risk of a wide range of diseases, as stress has already been shown to do.  For instance, allostatic load may help distinguish which patients will make the transition from hospital to home smoothly and which will be readmitted within days.  It would be valuable to identify those who are at higher risk of adverse outcomes especially in rural and regional areas, where access to medical attention is often time consuming and expensive.  The relationship between various measures of stress, redox status, immune activation and allostatic load remains unclear.

Linda is exploring non-invasive measurement of biochemical and physiological indicators of stress and molecular damage with a focus on techniques that are likely to be accessible away from metropolitan areas. She hopes to contribute a valuable piece to the larger problem of monitoring health and disease non-invasively.

In previous work at the Heart Research Institute, Sydney, Linda was engaged in ground-breaking research on hypochlorous acid/hypochlorite (HOCl)-mediated oxidation of low-density lipoproteins and other molecules. After characterising features of HOCl-oxidised LDL that made it pro-atherosclerotic, she identified the presence of active myeloperoxidase and HOCl-modified proteins in human atherosclerotic lesions. This work had implications for the mechanisms of development of lesions and hence development and screening of anti-atherosclerotic drugs.  Building on this initial work, others have since shown that myeloperoxidase is a useful marker to distinguish stable from unstable lesions and hence identify those at increased risk of heart attack or stroke.  This original work by Linda resulted in a number of publications that continue to be cited and several local and international oral presentations.