Directory

Chairman

Dimitri Azar , MD Dean University of Illinois College of Medicine Professor B.A. Field Endowed Chair of Ophthalmologic Research Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences University of Illinois at Chicago

Clinical Focus

• Refractive surgery, including LASIK, LASEK
• Complex corneal surgery, including Keratoprosthesis
• Design and development of novel techniques in refractive and other corneal and anterior segment surgeries

• Corneal wound healing, and role of Matrix Metalloproteinases in the cornea
• Mathematical modeling and optics in refractive surgery and presbyopic treatments

• Clinical Fellowship in Cornea and External Eye Disease: Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School
• Research Fellowship in Cornea-Morphology: Schepens Eye Research Institute, Harvard Medical School
• Ophthalmology Residency: Harvard Medical School
• Medical Degree: American University of Beirut, Lebanon
• Undergraduate: American University of Beirut

Biography

Dr. Dimitri Azar is a leader in basic science and clinically related vision research, making significant contributions to the treatment of corneal diseases and to advances in refractive surgery through sophisticated analysis and application of advanced optics.  Specifically, Dr. Azar’s research has resulted in better understanding of corneal wound healing, the applications and complications of excimer laser keratectomy, and the molecular organization of the normal and injured cornea.  Throughout his career, he has been a champion for translational research, adapting for clinical use the rigorous methods of basic science.  Few physician scientists have been more effective in promoting the interaction between basic and clinical research and advancing patient care through advances in laboratory science.  

Dr. Azar’s substantial experience with corneal and refractive surgery has led to a concomitant long-standing interest in corneal wound healing and the molecular mechanisms associated with the maintenance of corneal avascularity during this process.  His group’s research on the expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their putative role in the non-angiogenic response of the cornea after injury has greatly enhanced the understanding of this process.  Such advances have the potential to discover anti-angiogenic treatments aimed at the prevention of progressive angiogenisis-dependent such as ocular neovascular disorders and neoplasms.  Dr. Azar and his colleagues were the first to show the presence of type XVIII collagen, the precursor of endostatin, in the cornea and its upregulation during wound healing.  An increase in production of antiangiogenic neostatins by type XVIII collagen degradation occurs concomitantly with upregulation and activation of MMPs 7 and 14, which is important in maintaining corneal avascularity during wound healing.  In a recent American Ophthalmological Society thesis, Dr. Azar has described findings that are consistent with his hypothesis that stromal fibroblasts promote corneal neovascularization through their proangiogenic MMP activity by three possible mechanisms: breakdown of the extracellular matrix, degradation of corneal antiangiogenic factors and transcriptional upregulation of VEGF; and that the corneal epithelium generates corneal antiangiogenic factors and antiangiogenic MMPs that counterbalance the NV stimuli and help maintain corneal angiogenic privilege.  In other areas of interest, Dr. Azar has published widely on the management of corneal, anterior segment, and refractive surgical conditions (in particular, mathematical modeling) and has devised innovative surgical techniques in the fields of penetrating keratoplasty, refractive surgery, and posterior chamber intraocular lenses.

Dr. Azar’s research on corneal wound healing has been continually funded by the National Eye Institute since 1993 (R01EY10101 Metalloproteinases in Corneal Wounds).   He also has received research support from U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC) Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) and from leading private foundations, including Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc. and the Foundation Fighting Blindness.  Throughout his career, Dr. Azar has been committed to ensuring that the research in which he is involved is published and disseminated throughout the ophthalmology and vision science community.  He has published 190 peer-reviewed articles, more than 185 other articles and book chapters, and well over 100 abstracts (as of December 2008).  He is the editor or co-editor of 14 books on cornea and refractive surgery.  He maintains an active schedule as an invited lecturer at universities and professional societies around the world. 

His leadership in academic ophthalmology is world-renowned.  He holds numerous committee positions with the American Academy of Ophthalmology and is a member of the prestigious American Ophthalmological Association.  He is the USA Representative to the International Society of Refractive Surgeons and a member of the Board of Trustees, Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology.  He has been named one of The Best Doctors in America® or one of the Castle Connolly regional Top Doctors in America annually since 1994, and he has been included in Castle Connolly’s national database of America’s Top Doctors since 2007.  He serves as an ad hoc reviewer for Research to Prevent Blindness Inc. and the National Eye Institute, and also on the editorial board of Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science. He has received awards for his leadership from the AAO, including 2009 Lans Distinguished Award from the International Society of Refractive Surgery of the AAO.  UIC selected him for a University Scholar Award, the University’s highest recognition of academic scholarship, in 2009.

His commitment to teaching is legendary in the ophthalmology profession.  He has taught and mentored over 80 research and clinical fellows in cornea, external diseases and refractive surgery and countless residents.  His dedication to improving the methods for teaching residents and medical students has led him to pursue a Masters of Health Professions Education at UIC, and he has pioneered novel approaches to ophthalmology continuing education and review in the development of the Illinois Eye Review, an annual course he successfully introduced in 2008. 

Dr. Azar assumed the chairmanship of the UIC Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences in March 2006, after a highly successful decade on the faculty at Harvard Medical School.  He joined the Harvard faculty in 1996 as Associate Professor of Ophthalmology and was promoted to Professor of Ophthalmology in 2003.  During this time, he also advanced to the position of Senior Scientist at the Schepens Eye Research Institute.  1996 had marked his return to Harvard, where he had completed, during the years 1986 to 1991, a residency in ophthalmology and a clinical fellowship in Corneal and External Diseases at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI) and a research fellowship in Corneal Morphology at Schepens.   He served as Chief Resident and Instructor in Ophthalmology at the MEEI in 1990-91 before joining the faculty of the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, from 1991-1996.    Dr. Azar received his BS (1979) and MD (1983) from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, where he also completed an internship in internal medicine and a residency in ophthalmology (1983-86) before attending Harvard Medical School.