Nicole L. Spartano, PhD

Assistant Professor, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Biography

Nicole Spartano, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in Endocrinology, Diabetes, Nutrition and Weight Management at the Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine. She serves as the Director of the Glucose Monitoring Station at the Framingham Heart Study. This study is funded through an R01 from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (Spartano, PI) to use continuous glucose monitors in a non-diabetic population to measure glucose patterns that may predict the development of diabetes. She also serves as the Co-Director of the Physical Activity Station at the Framingham Heart Study, overseeing data collection using accelerometers (fitness trackers). She has received funding from the American Heart Association and Alzheimer's Association to understand the impact of physical activity throughout the lifecourse on brain health and the risk for dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Dr. Spartano also has a major research interest in using mobile health technology to improve health in underserved patient populations at Boston Medical Center. She is exploring the use of continuous glucose monitors as a tool for enhancing lifestyle interventions in patients with and without diabetes mellitus. She shares a MPI role on a Focused Research Project funded by Boston University’s Hariri Institute, which facilitates collaborations of clinical and computational investigators. This team is developing a software platform that can continuously collect mobile health data from research participants and patients. The goal of creating this platform is to address challenges in privacy and in providing timely communication to medically vulnerable patients.

Dr. Spartano also teaches courses for Boston University Graduate Medical Sciences, School of Public Health, and Sargent College of Health Sciences.

Publications

  • Published 8/7/2026

    He J, Zhang Y, Wang X, Spartano NL, Rong J, Benjamin EJ, Ang TFA, Au R, Lin H, Schramm E, Borrelli B, Liu C, Murabito JM. Associations Between Smartwatch-Derived Measures and Cognitive Function: Findings From the Electronic Framingham Heart Study. J Am Heart Assoc. 2026 Aug 18; 15(16):e049284. PMID: 42568104.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 8/1/2026

    Wang N, DiCorpo DA, Zhang Y, Kleinbrink E, Arnett DK, Barnard J, Blangero J, Bowden DW, Carson AP, Chen YI, Chung MK, Curran JE, Darbar D, Duggirala R, Ellinor PT, Fatkin D, Fornage M, Heard-Costa N, He J, Hou L, Kardia SLR, Kooperberg C, Loos RJF, McManus DD, Mitchell BD, Minster RL, North KE, Psaty BM, Raffield LM, Redline S, Rich SS, Roden D, Rotter JI, Shoemaker MB, Smith JD, Van Wagoner DR, Aguet F, Ardlie K, Bis JC, Brody JA, Cade BE, Clish CB, de Vries PS, Floyd JS, Freedman BI, Gabriel S, Gerzsten RE, Goodarzi MO, Gu C, Guo X, Gupta N, Heckbert SR, Hsu S, Hung YJ, Kalyani RR, Kelly TN, Kinney GL, Li C, Liu S, Liu Y, Lloyd-Jones DM, Manson JE, Mathias RA, Mercader JM, Morrison AC, Naseri T, Onengut S, Palmer ND, Peyser PA, Qi Q, Raghavan S, Reiner AP, Rooney MR, Sevilla-Gonzalez M, Sarnowski C, Smith JD, Smith JA, Spartano NL, Tahir U, Taylor KD, Tobias DK, Tracy RP, Viali S, Wang H, Wood AC, Yanek LR, Zhao W, Zheng Y, Dupuis J, Liu CT, Sladek R, Wessel J, Meigs JB, Manning AK. Colocalization of eQTLs With Type 2 Diabetes and Glycemic Traits Using Whole-Genome Sequences in Diverse Populations From the NHLBI Trans-Omics in Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Program. Diabetes. 2026 Aug 01; 75(8):1477-1491. PMID: 42274313.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 7/22/2026

    Hirsch JA, Besser LM, Pescador Jimenez M, Dickinson ST, Cornelius T, Francisco ST, Lawin K, Abdel Magid HS, Albrecht SS, Bai Allen N, Balte P, Barber S, Bateman LA, Beach LB, Block JP, Brown SC, Buhr RG, Chambers EC, Crooks JL, Diez Roux AV, Elkind MSV, Gallo LC, Gordon-Larsen P, Gutierrez J, Isasi CR, James P, Judd SE, Kanaya AM, Kandula NR, Kaufman JD, Kershaw KN, Kucharska-Newton AM, Kulick ER, Lee JS, Lovasi GS, Mauger D, McClure LA, Melly S, Merkin SS, Michael YL, Oates GR, Phillips BR, Reese JA, Regan EA, Reimer CJ, Rodriguez DA, Rundek T, Schembri M, Sims M, Spartano NL, Wilson C, Zhang Y, Oelsner EC. Spatial and neighborhood data in the collaborative cohort of cohorts for COVID-19 Research (C4R). PLoS One. 2026; 21(7):e0352170. PMID: 42485397.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 11/1/2025

    Haff MG, Murabito JM, Vasan RS, Spartano NL, Liu CT, Zhang X, Benjamin EJ, Lewis GD, Long MT. Physical Activity by Accelerometer Inversely Associated With Liver Fibrosis; Cross-Sectional Analysis of a Longitudinal Cohort. Liver Int. 2025 Nov; 45(11):e70380. PMID: 41055309.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 10/1/2025

    Rodriguez JA, Palermo NE, Song W, Lipsitz S, Caballero AE, Samal L, Spartano NL. Lack of Association Between Hemoglobin A1c and Continuous Glucose Monitor Metrics Among Individuals with Prediabetes and Normoglycemia. Diabetes Technol Ther. 2026 Apr; 28(4):381-386. PMID: 41027845.

    Read at: PubMed

View All 82 Publications:   View Full Profile in BUMC

Other Positions

  • Investigator
    Framingham Heart Study
  • Member, Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research
    Boston University
  • Graduate Medical Sciences Educator and Mentor (Primary Mentor of Graduate Students)
    Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Graduate Medical Sciences

Websites

Education

  • Tufts University, PhD
  • Tufts University, MS
  • Syracuse University, BS

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