Research Assistant Professor, Survey Research Center and Faculty Associate, Population Studies Center, Institute for Social Research
Biography
Dr. Noppert’s work lies at the intersection of biology, sociology, and epidemiology. Her work seeks to explain how social processes across the life course, such as socioeconomic status, impact a person’s biology. For example, does experiencing persistent disadvantage throughout life contribute to premature aging of the immune system?
She began her work as an infectious disease epidemiologist examining health disparities in tuberculosis (TB) in the U.S. Her work has consistently documented a strong social component underlying the distribution of TB. Those most vulnerable in the U.S. population are bearing the greatest burden of TB. Her current work now focuses on persistent viral infections (example: CMV, HSV-1, etc) and how they may be aging the immune system prematurely. However, in order to fully grasp the impact of these infections you have to look at the social environment. Understanding the link between social factors, infections, and immune function may hold clues to explaining persistent health disparities across the life course.
Funded Research
- A National Neighborhood Data Resource to Understand Inequities in the Health and Socioeconomic Impacts of COVID-19 in the United States
- Immunosenescence, socioeconomic disadvantage and dementia in the US aging population
- Social Disadvantage and Its Impact on Pathogen Burden and Immune Dysfunction Across the Life Course
Publications
- Grace Noppert, Rebecca C. Stebbins, Jennifer Beam Dowd, Allison E. Aiello. 2023. Socioeconomic and race/ethnic differences in immunosenescence: evidence from the Health and Retirement Study. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity 107:361-368.
- Renson, Audrey, Dennis, Alexis C., Grace Noppert, McClure, Elizabeth S., Aiello, Allison E.. 2022. Interventions on Socioeconomic and Racial Inequities in Respiratory Pandemics: a Rapid Systematic Review. Current Epidemiology Reports
- Grace Noppert, Chantel L. Martin, Paul N. Zivich, Allison E. Aiello, Kathleen Mullan Harris, Angela O'Rand. 2022. Adolescent neighborhood disadvantage and memory performance in young adulthood. Health & Place 75:102793.
- Kaitlyn B. Akel, Grace Noppert, Yogambigai Rajamoorthy, Yihan Lu, Awnish Singh, Harapan Harapan, Hao-Yuan Chang, Felicia Zhang, Shu-Fang Shih, Abram L. Wagner. 2022. A study of COVID-19 vaccination in the US and Asia: The role of media, personal experiences, and risk perceptions. PLOS Global Public Health 2(7):e0000734.
- Grace Noppert, Kate Duchowny, Philippa J Clarke. 2022. Declining US life expectancy since covid-19 — structural inequities foreshadow future fallout. BMJ 378
- Kate Duchowny, Grace Noppert. 2021. The Association Between Cytomegalovirus and Disability by Race/Ethnicity and Gender: Results from the Health and Retirement Study. American Journal of Epidemiology 190(11):2314-2322.
- Grace Noppert, Lauren C. Zalla. 2021. Who Counts and Who Gets Counted? Health Equity in Infectious Disease Surveillance. 111:1004-1006.
- Rebecca C. Stebbins, Jessie K. Edwards, Brenda L. Plassman, Y. Claire Yang, Grace Noppert, Mary Haan, Allison E. Aiello. 2021. Immune function, cortisol, and cognitive decline & dementia in an aging latino population. Psychoneuroendocrinology 133:105414.
- Grace Noppert, A. E. Aiello, A. M. O’Rand, H. J. Cohen. 2020. Race/Ethnic and Educational Disparities in the Association Between Pathogen Burden and a Laboratory-Based Cumulative Deficits Index. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities 7(1):99-108.
- Grace Noppert, Philippa J Clarke. 2020. Making the invisible visible: the current face of tuberculosis in Detroit, Michigan, USA. Cities & Health
- Noah Snyder-Mackler, Joseph Robert Burger, Lauren Gaydosh, Daniel W. Belsky, Grace Noppert, Fernando A. Campos, Alessandro Bartolomucci, Yang Claire Yang, Allison E. Aiello, Angela O’Rand, Kathleen Mullan Harris, Carol A. Shively, Susan C. Alberts, Jenny Tung. 2020. Social determinants of health and survival in humans and other animals. Science 368(6493)
- Grace Noppert, Feinstein, Lydia, Dowd, Jennifer B., Stebbins, Rebecca C., Zang, Emma, Needham, Belinda L., Helen Carmon Spink Meier, Simanek, Amanda, Aiello, Allison E.. 2020. Pathogen burden and leukocyte telomere length in the United States. Immunity & Ageing 17:Article 36.
- Philippa J Clarke, Grace Noppert, Yang, Zhenhua , Davidson, Peter , Ye, Wen , Wilson, Mark L. 2019. Contextualizing tuberculosis risk in time and space: Comparing time-restricted genotypic case clusters and geospatial clusters to evaluate the relative contribution of recent transmission to incidence of TB using nine years of case data from Michigan, USA. Annals of Epidemiology 40:21-27.e3.
- Philippa J Clarke, Margaret Takako Hicken, Grace Noppert, Wilson, Mark L. 2019. Understanding the intersection of race and place: the case of tuberculosis in Michigan. BMC Public Health 19(1):1669.
- Ryan E. Malosh, Grace Noppert, Jon Zelner, Emily T. Martin, Arnold S. Monto. 2019. Social patterning of acute respiratory illnesses in the Household Influenza Vaccine Evaluation (HIVE) Study 2014-2015. Epidemiology & Infection 147:E185.
- R. C. Stebbins, Grace Noppert, A. E. Aiello, E. Cordoba, J. B. Ward, L. Feinstein. 2019. Persistent socioeconomic and racial and ethnic disparities in pathogen burden in the United States, 1999-2014. Epidemiology & Infection 147:E301.
- Philippa J Clarke, Grace Noppert. 2018. The Modern Profile of Tuberculosis: Developing the TB Social Survey to understand contemporary social patterns in tuberculosis. Public Health Nursing 35(1):48-55.
- Grace Noppert, A. E. Aiello, A. M. O'Rand, H. J. Cohen. 2018. Investigating pathogen burden in relation to a cumulative deficits index in a representative sample of US adults. Epidemiology & Infection 146(15):1968-1976.
- Grace Noppert, Candace S. Brown, Marianne Chanti-Ketterl, Katherine S. Hall, L. Kristin Newby, Harvey Jay Cohen, Miriam C. Morey. 2018. The Impact of Multiple Dimensions of Socioeconomic Status on Physical Functioning Across the Life Course. Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine
- Grace Noppert, Ryan E. Malosh, Elizabeth B. Moran, Shama D. Ahuja, Jon Zelner. 2018. Contemporary Social Disparities in TB Infection and Disease in the USA: a Review. Current Epidemiology Reports 5(4):442-449.
- Philippa J Clarke, Grace Noppert, Wilson, Mark L, Ye, Wen , Davidson, Peter , Yang, Zhenhua . 2017. Race and nativity are major determinants of tuberculosis in the U.S.: evidence of health disparities in tuberculosis incidence in Michigan, 2004-2012. BMC Public Health 17(1):538.
- Philippa J Clarke, Grace Noppert, Yang, Zhenhua , Ye, Wen , Davidson, Peter , Wilson, Mark L. 2017. Individual- and neighborhood-level contextual factors are associated with Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmission: genotypic clustering of cases in Michigan, 2004-2012. Annals of Epidemiology 27(6):371-376.
- Grace Noppert, John T Kubale, Mark L Wilson. 2017. Analyses of infectious disease patterns and drivers largely lack insights from social epidemiology: contemporary patterns and future opportunities. J Epidemiol Community Health 71(4):350-355.
- Phillip M. Singer, Grace Noppert, Charlotte H. Jenkins. 2017. Gaps in Federal and State Screening of Tuberculosis in the United States. American Journal of Public Health 107(11):1750-1752.
- Grace Noppert, Zhenhua Yang, Charles Sandy, Joconiah Chirenda. 2015. Trends of sputum-smear positive tuberculosis in Zimbabwe: 2008-2011. BMC Research Notes 8(1):575.