Biomarkers and Embodied Stress

I am currently co-leading a new collaborative project with Dr. Jae Puckett (MSU), Trans Resilience and Health in Sociopolitical Contexts. This study is a 1-year longitudinal, multi-sited study that will enhance our understanding of resilience and health of trans people within their current sociopolitical climates. Baseline interviews and biomarker measures of health were completed with 158 transgender people living in Oregon, Michigan, Nebraska and Tennessee in fall 2019 and winter of 2020 followed by 1 year of online surveys through March of 2021. Another round of interviews and health measures was completed in spring and summer of 2021. We are currently working on data analysis – check out our new publications!

I also conducted The Transition and Gender Minority Stress Experience Study, which was the first to include in-person interviews with biomarker collection among trans people; I conducted interviews with 65 transgender men living in New England and collected a number of biomarkers of stress (e.g. salivary cortisol, ambulatory blood-pressure, and inflammation levels) to enhance our understanding of embodied minority stress during gender transition.

Alex Jagielski (UO undergrad student) practicing collecting dried blood spots on Kelsi Kuehn (UO PhD student).

The Stress, Adaptation and Resilience (STAR) Lab also trains interested undergraduate and graduate students in community-engaged research methods and integrating minimally invasive biomarker sampling methods for studying embodied stress and stigma (pictured left). 

Publicly Accessible Presentations & Engagement:

Podcast Interview: Human Biology Association Sausage of Science Podcast: Transgender Experience and Health

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Institute of Gender and Sexual Minority Health. Featured speaker as postdoctoral alum – 7th Anniversary Celebration: November 2022

Zachary DuBois & Jae Puckett co-present: Trans Resilience and Health
Experiences of trans and gender diverse people living in Michigan, Nebraska, Oregon, and Tennessee during the COVID-19 pandemic 2020-2021.
Transgender Professional Association of Transgender Health Conference 2021.

Jae Puckett & L. Zachary DuBois co-present: Structural stigma and mental health: Experiences of trans and gender diverse people living in Oregon, Michigan, Nebraska, and Tennessee in 2020-2021. National LGBTQ Health Conference, Institute of Sexual & Gender Minority Health. Northwestern University, May 2021.

Macalester University Annual McCurdy Distinguished Lecture, “Transgender experience in the U.S.: Understanding stigma, stress, and biologies of resilience.”  Feb 2020.

Relevant Publications:

DuBois, L. Z., SturtzSreetharan, C., MacFife, B., Puckett, J. A., Jagielski, A., Dunn, T., Anderson, T., Hope, D. A., Mocarski, R., & Juster, R.-P. (2022). Trans and Gender Diverse People’s Experience Wearing Face Masks During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Findings from Data Across 4 States in the USA. Sexuality Research and Social Policy. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-022-00781-0

Puckett, J. A., Huit, T. Z., Hope, D. A., Mocarski, R., Lash, B. R., Walker, T., Holt, N., Ralston, A., Miles, M., Capannola, A., Tipton, C., Juster, R.-P., & DuBois, L. Z. (2022). Transgender and Gender-Diverse People’s Experiences of Minority Stress, Mental Health, and Resilience in Relation to Perceptions of Sociopolitical Contexts. Transgender Health. https://doi.org/10.1089/trgh.2022.0047

DuBois, L. Z., & Juster, R.-P. (2022). Lived experience and allostatic load among transmasculine people living in the United States. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 143, 105849. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2022.105849

DuBois, L. Z., Gibb, J. K., Juster, R.-P., & Powers, S. I. (2021). Biocultural approaches to transgender and gender diverse experience and health: Integrating biomarkers and advancing gender/sex research. American Journal of Human Biology, 33(1), e23555. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23555

Rich AJ, Williams J, Malik M, Wirtz A, Reisner S,
DuBois LZ, Juster RP, Lesko CR, Davis N, Althoff KN, Cannon C, Mayer K, Elliott A, & Poteat T. (2020). Biopsychosocial Mechanisms Linking Gender Minority Stress to HIV Comorbidities Among Black and Latina Transgender Women (LITE Plus): Protocol for a Mixed Methods Longitudinal Study. JMIR Res Protoc, 9(4), e17076. https://doi.org/10.2196/17076

Juster, R.-P., Doyle, D. M., Hatzenbuehler, M. L., Everett, B. G.,
DuBois, L. Z., & McGrath, J. J. (2019). Sexual orientation, disclosure, and cardiovascular stress reactivity. Stress22(3), 321–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/10253890.2019.1579793


Sweet, E.,
DuBois, L. Z., & Stanley, F. (2018). Embodied Neoliberalism: Epidemiology and the Lived Experience of Consumer Debt. International Journal of Health Services, 48(3), 495–511. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020731418776580

DuBois, L. Z., Powers, S., Everett, B. G., & Juster, R.-P. (2017). Stigma and diurnal cortisol among transitioning transgender men. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 82, 59–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.05.008

DuBois, L. Z. (2012). Associations between transition-specific stress experience, nocturnal decline in ambulatory blood pressure, and C-reactive protein levels among transgender men. American Journal of Human Biology, 24(1), 52–61. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.22203