Maura Elizabeth Walker, PhD
Assistant Professor, Health Sciences
Biography
Dr. Walker is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Sciences at Boston University’s Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and in the Section of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology at the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. She serves as the Principal Investigator of the Quantitative Nutrition and Metabolism Lab and co-leads the cross-university Digital Health and Network Multi-Omics Lab.
As a transdisciplinary nutrition scientist, Dr. Walker has conducted extensive research across preclinical, clinical, and epidemiologic domains, examining the influence of diet on various biological systems, including transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and gut microbiota. In her role as a Junior Investigator with the Framingham Heart Study, her primary research focuses on using both traditional and systems-level epidemiological methods to deepen our understanding of how modifiable risk factors can alter the life-course progression of cardiometabolic diseases, with a particular emphasis on MASLD, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.
Dr. Walker earned her MS and PhD in Biochemical and Molecular Nutrition from the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, where she also conducted research at the USDA Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging. She teaches SAR 783 Metabolomic Regulation and SAR 785 Research in Clinical Nutrition for BU’s Masters of Science in Nutrition degree programs.
Other Positions
- Research Assistant Professor, Preventive Medicine & Epidemiology, Medicine, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
- Investigator, Framingham Heart Study
Publications
- Published on 2/12/2025
Spartano NL, Prescott B, Walker ME, Shi E, Venkatesan G, Fei D, Lin H, Murabito JM, Ahn D, Battelino T, Edelman SV, Fleming GA, Freckmann G, Galindo RJ, Joubert M, Lansang MC, Mader JK, Mankovsky B, Mathioudakis NN, Mohan V, Peters AL, Shah VN, Spanakis EK, Waki K, Wright EE, Zilbermint M, Wolpert HA, Steenkamp DW. Expert Clinical Interpretation of Continuous Glucose Monitor Reports From Individuals Without Diabetes. J Diabetes Sci Technol. 2025 Feb 12; 19322968251315171. PMID: 39936548.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 1/27/2025
Sun N, Prescott B, Ma J, Xanthakis V, Quatromoni PA, Long MT, Walker ME. The cross-sectional association between ultra-processed food intake and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease. Clin Nutr ESPEN. 2025 Apr; 66:215-220. PMID: 39880205.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 1/1/2025
Weinstein G, Kojis D, Banerjee A, Seshadri S, Walker M, Beiser AS. Ultra-processed food consumption and risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease: The Framingham Heart Study. J Prev Alzheimers Dis. 2025 Feb; 12(2):100042. PMID: 39863327.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 9/11/2024
Spartano NL, Sultana N, Lin H, Cheng H, Lu S, Fei D, Murabito JM, Walker ME, Wolpert HA, Steenkamp DW. Defining continuous glucose monitor time in range in a large community-based cohort without diabetes. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2024 Sep 11. PMID: 39257191.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 7/14/2024
Kim H, Chen J, Prescott B, Walker ME, Grams ME, Yu B, Vasan RS, Floyd JS, Sotoodehnia N, Smith NL, Arking DE, Coresh J, Rebholz CM. Plasma proteins associated with plant-based diets: Results from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study and Framingham Heart Study (FHS). Clin Nutr. 2024 Aug; 43(8):1929-1940. PMID: 39018652.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 6/9/2024
Sun N, Prescott B, Ma J, Mohanty A, Long MT, Walker ME. Prevalence of Steatotic Liver Disease Subtypes and Association With Metabolic Risk Factors in the Framingham Heart Study. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2024 Nov; 22(11):2330-2333. PMID: 38857746.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 5/3/2024
Ravichandran S, Gajjar P, Walker ME, Prescott B, Tsao CW, Jha M, Rao P, Miller P, Larson MG, Vasan RS, Shah RV, Xanthakis V, Lewis GD, Nayor M. Life's Essential 8 Cardiovascular Health Score and Cardiorespiratory Fitness in the Community. J Am Heart Assoc. 2024 May 07; 13(9):e032944. PMID: 38700001.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 10/10/2023
Mi MY, Gajjar P, Walker ME, Miller P, Xanthakis V, Murthy VL, Larson MG, Vasan RS, Shah RV, Lewis GD, Nayor M. Association of healthy dietary patterns and cardiorespiratory fitness in the community. Eur J Prev Cardiol. 2023 Oct 10; 30(14):1450-1461. PMID: 37164358.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 5/1/2023
Westerman KE, Walker ME, Gaynor SM, Wessel J, DiCorpo D, Ma J, Alonso A, Aslibekyan S, Baldridge AS, Bertoni AG, Biggs ML, Brody JA, Chen YI, Dupuis J, Goodarzi MO, Guo X, Hasbani NR, Heath A, Hidalgo B, Irvin MR, Johnson WC, Kalyani RR, Lange L, Lemaitre RN, Liu CT, Liu S, Moon JY, Nassir R, Pankow JS, Pettinger M, Raffield LM, Rasmussen-Torvik LJ, Selvin E, Senn MK, Shadyab AH, Smith AV, Smith NL, Steffen L, Talegakwar S, Taylor KD, de Vries PS, Wilson JG, Wood AC, Yanek LR, Yao J, Zheng Y, Boerwinkle E, Morrison AC, Fornage M, Russell TP, Psaty BM, Levy D, Heard-Costa NL, Ramachandran VS, Mathias RA, Arnett DK, Kaplan R, North KE, Correa A, Carson A, Rotter JI, Rich SS, Manson JE, Reiner AP, Kooperberg C, Florez JC, Meigs JB, Merino J, Tobias DK, Chen H, Manning AK. Investigating Gene-Diet Interactions Impacting the Association Between Macronutrient Intake and Glycemic Traits. Diabetes. 2023 May 01; 72(5):653-665. PMID: 36791419.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 12/21/2022
Du S, Chen J, Kim H, Walker ME, Lichtenstein AH, Chatterjee N, Ganz P, Yu B, Vasan RS, Coresh J, Rebholz CM. Plasma Protein Biomarkers of Healthy Dietary Patterns: Results from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study and the Framingham Heart Study. J Nutr. 2023 Jan; 153(1):34-46. PMID: 36913470.
Read at: PubMed
View 20 more publications: View full profile at BUMC