[10][11][12] Lindquist was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Iver and Eleanor (née Maggio), and attended Maine South High School in Park Ridge.

[17] At the University of Chicago Lindquist investigated the role of heat shock proteins in regulating the cellular response to environmental stresses.

[27] Lindquist is best known for her research that provided strong evidence for a new paradigm in genetics based upon the inheritance of proteins with new, self-perpetuating shapes rather than new DNA sequences.

[13] She was considered an expert in protein folding, which, as explained by Lindquist in the following excerpt, is an ancient, fundamental problem in biology: What do "mad cows", people with neurodegenerative diseases, and an unusual type of inheritance in yeast have in common?

She proposed that a heat shock protein, hsp90, may act in the same way, normally preventing phenotypic consequences of genetic changes, but showing all changes at once when the HSP system is overloaded, either pharmacologically or under stressful environmental conditions.

Lindquist's lab investigates closely related evolutionary mechanisms involved in the progression of cancerous tumors[30] and in the evolution of antibiotic-resistant fungi.

[31] Lindquist made advances in nanotechnology, researching organic amyloid fibers capable of self-organizing into structures smaller than manufactured materials.