Education

• Postdoctoral Scholarship Training in Genetic Epidemiology and Aging, USC
• PhD in Health Behavior Research / Preventive Medicine, USC
• MPH in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, USC
• Predoctoral Training in Cellular and Molecular Biology, National Cancer Institute
• BA in Biology, Oberlin College

Research

• Social and genomic interactions underlying aging-related health
• Biological age biomarker development
• Health disparities among socially disadvantaged groups

Overview

Em Arpawong, PhD, MPH, is a Research Assistant Professor of Gerontology and director of the Gerontology Bioinformatics Core.

The overarching goal of her research is to identify mechanisms that promote healthy aging and resilience to cumulative burden across the life course. A central component of Arpawong’s work aims to improve the measurement of biological aging and to identify molecular pathways that link life-course exposures to late-life health and resilience. Arpawong develops and evaluates biological aging markers derived from DNA methylation and gene expression profiles and examine their ability to predict aging-related outcomes, including cognitive decline, physical function, disease risk, and mortality. Methodologically, her research integrates statistical genetics, bioinformatics, and behavioral genetic approaches applied to large longitudinal cohort studies.

In addition to her research program, Arpawong contributes to collaborative infrastructure supporting aging research as director of the Bioinformatics Core in the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, as Co-Lead of the Genomic Translation Core Across Species at the Nathan Shock Center for Excellence in the Biology of Aging, where experts facilitate the translation of genomic discoveries across model organisms and human populations; and as Co-Lead of the Research Core for the Claude D. Pepper Los Angeles Older Americans Independence Center, where she supports interdisciplinary geroscience research aimed at understanding and promoting the health and independence of older Americans.