Maura Elizabeth Walker, PhD
Assistant Professor, Health Sciences
Biography
Dr. Walker (she/her) 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 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 Jun 09. 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 - Published on 10/15/2022
Gonzalez Izundegui D, Miller PE, Shah RV, Clish CB, Walker ME, Mitchell GF, Gerszten RE, Larson MG, Vasan RS, Nayor M. Response of circulating metabolites to an oral glucose challenge and risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality in the community. Cardiovasc Diabetol. 2022 Oct 15; 21(1):213. PMID: 36243866.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 7/27/2022
Walker ME, Spartano NL. Identifying Ultra-processed Foods in Nutrition Research: What a Proccess! Neurology. 2022 Jul 27. PMID: 35896435.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 7/27/2022
Walker ME, Spartano NL. Identifying Ultraprocessed Foods in Nutrition Research: What a Process! Neurology. 2022 Sep 06; 99(10):411-412. PMID: 36219799.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 5/26/2022
Kaplan RC, Song RJ, Lin J, Xanthakis V, Hua S, Chernofsky A, Evenson KR, Walker ME, Cuthbertson C, Murabito JM, Cordero C, Daviglus M, Perreira KM, Gellman M, Sotres-Alvarez D, Vasan RS, Xue X, Spartano NL, Mossavar-Rahmani Y. Predictors of incident diabetes in two populations: framingham heart study and hispanic community health study / study of latinos. BMC Public Health. 2022 May 26; 22(1):1053. PMID: 35619100.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 3/31/2021
Lee J, Walker ME, Bourdillon MT, Spartano NL, Rogers GT, Jacques PF, Vasan RS, Xanthakis V. Conjoint Associations of Adherence to Physical Activity and Dietary Guidelines With Cardiometabolic Health: The Framingham Heart Study. J Am Heart Assoc. 2021 04 06; 10(7):e019800. PMID: 33784828.
Read at: PubMed
View 15 more publications: View full profile at BUMC