Grace Noppert

Grace Noppert
Dr. Grace A. Noppert is a social and infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Michigan whose work explores how social and environmental conditions shape biological aging and health. Her research is driven by a central question: how do the places we live and the experiences we carry across the life course become embedded in the body?

Using large population-based datasets alongside biomarker data, Dr. Noppert studies how neighborhood conditions and early life experiences influence the aging immune system and susceptibility to disease. A key focus of her work is immunosenescence, or the gradual decline of immune function with age, and how it is shaped by social and environmental exposures. She has a particular interest in herpesviruses as persistent infections that provide insight into immune system function and aging.

Dr. Noppert is a faculty member in the Survey Research Center at the Institute for Social Research and co-directs the Biosocial Research Collaborative. She also serves as Deputy Director of the National Neighborhood Data Archive (NaNDA), where she helps lead efforts to expand data infrastructure for studying how neighborhood environments shape health across the United States.