About Us
We are an interdisciplinary, collaborative laboratory performing human-level observational, interventional, and health services research motivated by a fundamental concern for the principle of justice in health and health care. The lab, funded predominantly by agencies of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for more than 15 years, employs about 20 full and part-time researchers and staff across disciplines including epidemiology, gerontology, anthropology, public health, oncology, and data science. The lab routinely collaborates across disciplines, departments, and with investigators at other institutions including experts in the fields of computer science, geriatrics, oncology, public health, social services administration, psychology, neuroscience, materials science, engineering and other medical and social science fields.
Principal Investigator
Stacy Tessler Lindau, MD, MAPP, FACOG is the Catherine Lindsay Dobson Professor in the Departments of Ob/Gyn and Professor of Medicine-Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the University of Chicago. She is also Special Advisor to the Provost, leading projects in the provost’s highest priority strategic domains and working closely with the vice provosts and the provost’s chief of staff as well as other administrative and faculty leaders. Dr. Lindau’s scholarship, conducted in partnership with a diverse and world-class team of researchers in her lab, focuses on deciphering the mechanisms through which social and sexual conditions drive health and the impact of iatrogenesis on social and sexual functioning. At the University of Chicago, Dr. Lindau founded and directs the Program in Integrative Sexual Medicine for Women and Girls with Cancer (PRISM), the Bionic Breast Project, CommunityRx, WomanLab and Feed1st.
A successful entrepreneur, Dr. Lindau has advanced several of her discoveries from research lab to real life, including NowPow (acquired in 2021 by Unite USA, Inc.), MAPSCorps, 501c3 (joined Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy in 2023) and the Scientific Network on Female Sexual Health and Cancer, 501c3 (inaugural chairperson). Dr. Lindau’s work has been published in the highest impact scientific literature including NEJM, JAMA, BMJ and Health Affairs and has been featured in a wide range of print and other media outlets including the New York Times, National Public Radio and the National Book Review. Dr. Lindau has patents pending related to the Bionic Breast Project.
Dr. Lindau is a dedicated mentor. MAPSCorps has employed and trained more than 3000 youth in Chicago, New York City, rural eastern North Carolina and other geographies. She also takes great pleasure and pride in mentoring early career medical student and physician scientists across disciplines and has been honored for her mentorship activities, including with trainee awards named for her by MAPSCorps and the Scientific Network on Female Sexual Health and Cancer. Dr. Lindau was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar, an Aspen Institute Health Innovator Fellow and a 2023 Chicago Moth Story Slam winner.
Areas of Expertise
- Women’s Health: across the life course
- Gerosexuality: sexuality in the context of aging, cancer, cardiovascular and other common diseases
- Population Health: social and structural drivers of health, food insecurity, health IT
- Health Policy: food access, women’s health
Featured Research and Programs
Bionic Breast
The Bionic Breast Project is an interdisciplinary, multi-institutional effort to create a neuroprosthetic solution to the negative sensory sequelae of mastectomy using bionics.
WomanLab
WomanLab is a virtual platform where every woman – and everyone who loves and cares for women – can learn truths about sex.
CommunityRx
CommunityRx is a health information technology system that operationalizes the connection between health care and the assets of a community to improve patient outcomes.
Feed1st
Feed1st is a system of open access, self-serve, no questions asked, 24/7/365 food pantries at UChicago Medicine.