Nicole L Spartano PhD
Assistant Professor, Endocrinology, Diabetes, Nutrition & Weight Management
Graduate Faculty (Primary Mentor of Grad Students)
720 Harrison Ave | (315) 415-2040spartano@bu.edu
Sections
Endocrinology, Diabetes, Nutrition & Weight Management
Centers
Framingham Heart Study
Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research
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.
Education
PhD, Tufts University
MS, Tufts University
Biology, BS, Syracuse University
Publications
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.
Published on 10/1/2025Rodriguez 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. 2025 Oct 01. PMID: 41027845.
Published on 9/12/2025Ding H, Brown S, Paquette DR, Orwig TA, Spartano NL, Lin H. Passive Measures of Physical Activity and Cadence as Early Indicators of Cognitive Impairment: Observational Study. J Med Internet Res. 2025 Sep 12; 27:e72946. PMID: 40939123.
Published on 7/31/2025Bakhshi B, Sultana N, Lin H, Fei D, Vallejo V, Gatanti A, Steenkamp DW, Murabito JM, McKeown NM, Walker ME, Spartano NL. Associations of diet composition and quality with continuous glucose monitor-derived glycemic metrics in a community-based cohort. Am J Clin Nutr. 2025 Oct; 122(4):942-953. PMID: 40749968.
Published on 6/20/2025Rizvi N, Lin H, Beiser AS, Spartano NL. How Do Occupational Sedentary Behavior and Occupational Cognitive Complexity Relate to Cognitive Function? A Cross-Sectional Study. Health Sci Rep. 2025 Jun; 8(6):e70949. PMID: 40547068.
Published on 6/3/2025Wang X, Zhang Y, Pathiravasan CH, Spartano NL, Benjamin EJ, McManus DD, Lewis GD, Larson MG, Vasan RS, Murabito JM, Liu C, Nayor M. Blood Pressure Responses During Exercise Were Associated With Average Home Blood Pressure and Home Blood Pressure Variability: The Electronic Framingham Heart Study. J Am Heart Assoc. 2025 Jun 03; 14(11):e039457. PMID: 40459124.
Published on 3/17/2025Spartano 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. 2025 Mar 17; 110(4):1128-1134. PMID: 39257191.
Published on 3/11/2025Alexanian SM, Cheney MC, Bello Ramos JC, Spartano NL, Wolpert HA, Steenkamp DW. Impact of Meal Insulin Bolus Timing and Bedtime Snacking on Continuous Glucose Monitoring-Derived Glycemic Metrics in Hospitalized Inpatients. Diabetes Technol Ther. 2025 Jul; 27(7):511-516. PMID: 40067436.
Published on 2/12/2025Spartano 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.
Published on 12/4/2024Alexanian SM, Cheney MC, Spartano NL, Bello-Ramos JC, Reddy N, Malik A, Murati J, Wolpert HA, Steenkamp DW. Comparing Postprandial Glycemic Control Using Fiasp vs Insulin Aspart in Hospitalized Patients With Type 2 Diabetes. Endocr Pract. 2025 Mar; 31(3):306-314. PMID: 39643003.
Media Mentions
Published on 9/12/2025
Can a Continuous Glucose Monitor Help You Lose Weight?
Published on 8/20/2025
Measure blood sugar with a grain of salt
Published on 5/21/2025
Lisa Jarvis: MAHA is pushing glucose tracking that most people don’t need
Published on 11/29/2024
Published on 11/15/2024
People without diabetes can use continuous glucose monitors. But should they?
Published on 11/12/2024
Continuous Glucose Monitors for All? Opinions Remain Mixed
Published on 11/8/2024
Continuous Glucose Monitors for All? Opinions Remain Mixed
Published on 6/27/2022
Reduce dementia risk with these food and activity choices
Published on 11/1/2021
How to improve your fitness if you sit down all day, according to experts
Published on 9/16/2021
How many steps should you take a day? Hitting 7,000 may reduce risk of early death, study says
View full list of 40 media mentions.