Lindi has been involved in HIV and genital microbiome and immunology research for over 10 years. She completed her Ph.D. in Medical Virology at UCT in South Africa in 2012, followed by a two-year postdoctoral fellowship, also at UCT.

Since then, she has received multiple research grants from local and international funding agencies, including an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator award, two National Institutes of Health RO1 awards, a European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) grant, and a Carnegie Emerging Academic Leaders award.

Lindi’s key collaborators include researchers at the University of Cape Town (South Africa), FHI 360 (US), Desmond Tutu Health Foundation (South Africa), Seattle Children’s Hospital (US), Virginia Commonwealth University (US), and the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa.

She is currently leading or co-leading two clinical cohort studies and a translational research study in South Africa. The primary focus of this research is to understand the socio-behavioural and biological factors associated with HIV acquisition risk in South African women and to develop tools to reduce this risk. An exciting and emerging area of her work aims to address non-optimal microbiota and resultant adverse maternal, sexual and reproductive outcomes in Australian women.