Faculty

Sara Lindstroem

Associate Professor, Epidemiology
Director of Research, Epidemiology


Education

MSc Engineering Physics, Umea University, 2004
PhD Genetic Epidemiology, Umea University, 2007

Contact


University of Washington
Box 351619
Department of Epidemiology
Hans Rosling Center for Population Health, 874A
Seattle, WA 98195
View Website »

Bio

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Dr. Lindstroem (Lindstrom/Lindström) is a genetic epidemiologist who seeks to understand the genetic contribution to complex disease with an emphasis on cancer. She works at the intersection of statistical genetics and genetic epidemiology, where she always seeks to apply novel statistical methods on large-scale -omics data. By leveraging large-scale population-based studies, she studies how our genes and environment affect our risk of developing disease. She leads multiple international efforts to study genetic risk factors for cancer and mammographic density (R01CA194393, R01CA244670), and she is studying the genetics underlying a range of outcomes in people living with HIV (R01DA047045). Dr. Lindstroem also teaches PHG511 “Genetic Epidemiology”, EPI583 “Epidemiology Seminars”, and co-teaches the “Genetic Epidemiology” module as part of the UW Summer Institute of Statistical Genetics (SISG).

Research Interests

My research focuses on understanding the genetic contribution to common complex diseases, with a primary emphasis on cancer and linked traits. By leveraging long-running large population-based studies, I investigate how our genetics and environment affect our risk of developing disease.

Current research projects include studying the shared genetic origin between common cancers and the genetics underlying childhood obesity, breast tissue composition and venous thromboembolism. I am also interested in finding approaches to incorporate information about the functional characteristics of the genome in my studies. Finally, I am involved in several large-scale international collaborations that study the genetics underlying breast and prostate cancer.

Recent Publications (PubMed)

Psychiatric inpatient bed capacity and suicide mortality in Sweden: a nationwide ecological study.
(2026 Jul)
Lancet Reg Health Eur 66(): 101675
Berge J, Gerle M, Lindström S

Suicidal behaviour and suicide mortality in Parkinson's disease: a nationwide register-based cohort study.
(2026)
BMJ Neurol Open 8(1): e001618
Lindström S, Wolfschlag M, Cedergren Weber G, Ljung H, Håkansson A, Odin P, Berge J

Prioritizing context-specific genetic risk mechanisms in 11 solid cancers.
(2026 Apr 17)
J Natl Cancer Inst
Wu X, Kim A, Breeze CE, O'Mara TA, Ramachandran D, Dörk T, Koutros S, Rothman N, Prokunina-Olsson L, Mancuso N, Lindström S, Kraft P

Performance of an image-only deep learning breast cancer risk model with the addition of a polygenic risk score.
(2026 Jun)
Br J Cancer 134(11): 1624-1632
Azam S, Lamb LR, Eliassen AH, King TA, Specht M, Kraft P, Lindstrom S, Lehman CD, Tamimi RM

Improving isoform-level eQTL and integrative genetic analyses of breast cancer risk with long-read RNA transcript assemblies.
(2026 Mar 25)
bioRxiv
Head ST, Nemani A, Chang YH, Harrison TA, Bresnahan ST, Rothstein JH, Sieh W, Lindström S, Bhattacharya A

Show complete publication list