Inclusivity in Sargent: Q.U.E.E.R. Lab Connects Marginalized Groups to Research

Since its opening on January 2023, Sargent College’s The Queer Understanding, Equity and Educational Research (Q.U.E.E.R) Lab has sought to create a more inclusive research environment at Boston University and in the wider field of physiology. Co-directed by Dr. Jesse Moreira-Bouchard and Dr. Lisa Roberts, the lab approaches inclusion through two interconnected areas: investigating health disparities among medically marginalized populations and creating more inclusive educational environments for students entering STEM and medicine.

The lab’s first area of research examines how chronic stress associated with interpersonal and structural discrimination can contribute to health disparities among medically marginalized groups. Researchers investigate relationships between stress and physiological responses, using health indicators such as blood pressure and heart rate to understand how discrimination can affect the body.

“Gaining a better understanding of how stress affects the cardiovascular system will help us prevent the excess disease and mortality in LGBTQ people, especially given that LGBTQ people experience higher rates of cardiovascular disease than their cisgender, heterosexual peers, and given that CVD (cardiovascular disease) is the leading cause of death,” says lab co-director Dr Moreira-Bouchard.

Dr. Moreira-Bouchard and graduate researcher Joshua Ferrill are currently working on research measuring diastolic blood pressure (DVP) and stress in queer participants. Using vascular ultrasound, the researchers examine how participants’ arteries respond to a stimulus and compare those responses with those of heterosexual participants.

Q.U.E.E.R lab’s second mission focuses on representation and belonging within medicine. Q.U.E.E.R. Lab also examines how educational environments can support students to persist and belong in medicine. These missions create structural support for educational programs and classroom materials.

Dr. Roberts and graduate student Kyla Quelle are currently piloting a new initiative around teaching diverse classroom curriculum in the summer class “Gross Human Anatomy”– showing different skin tones, body weights, and intersex genitalia in textbooks and other educational material, some curated by Quelle. They plan to survey how students’ understanding of the human body improved over the course of the summer.

“Our work in creating more inclusive STEM teaching and learning environments will hopefully help us retain a more diverse group of students, who will go on to be a more diverse group of leaders in STEM and medicine, and treat more diverse populations of patients,” says Dr. Moreira-Bouchard.

Together, the lab’s two areas of research address the multiple dimensions of belonging and representation in health research.