Education
PhD Epidemiology, University of Wisconsin (Madison), 2018
BS Cognitive Science, University of California (San Diego), 2009
Contact
206-667-1036
bdarst@fredhutch.org
1100 Fairview Ave N
Seattle, WA 98109
Bio
Dr. Burcu Darst’s is a genetic epidemiologist with research focused on identifying and understanding genetic and multi-omic risk factors of complex diseases in diverse populations, particularly how they relate to health disparities. Her research lies predominantly in studying prostate cancer, type 2 diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease, with the underlying goal of identifying risk factors that could prevent the onset and health disparities of these diseases. Dr. Darst’s research is based on a variety of approaches, including using rare genetic variants captured with genomic sequencing, genome-wide association studies, polygenic risk scores, and metabolomics to understand disease risk. Currently, she is leading an effort to improve understanding of the genomic and metabolic mechanisms contributing to prostate cancer risk in men from diverse populations as well as improving the utility of polygenic risk scores and rare genetic variants for the prediction of prostate cancer across multi-ancestry patient populations.This research is conducted in collaboration with large-scale international collaborations investigating genetic risk of prostate cancer.
Research Interests
Prostate cancer prevention, Health disparities, Genetic risk factors, Molecular biomarkers, Multi-omic integration
Recent Publications (PubMed)
(2025 Jun 9)
Am J Hum Genet
Khan AT, Adebamowo C, Fullerton SM, Hirbo J, Konigsberg IR, Kraft P, Martin I, Nelson SC, Ramsay M, Wojcik GL, Adebamowo SN, Conomos MP, Darst BF, Hysong MR, Li Y, Martin AR, Mathias RA, Rich SS, Sakoda LC, Schrider DR, Sharma J, Smith JL, Sun Q, Zhang Y, Polygenic Risk Methods in Diverse Populations (PRIMED) Consortium, Gogarten SM
(2025 May 30)
Lifestyle Genom
Scadden AW, Kakar A, Litkowski EM, Meyer MC, Armstrong ND, Buyske S, Cai Y, Cheng I, Darst BF, Fornage M, Graff M, Guo B, Haiman CA, Highland HM, Kooperberg C, Le Marchand L, North K, Peters U, Rich SS, Rotter JI, Srinivasasainagendra V, Tiwari HK, Waldrop S, Young K, Raghavan S, Lange EM, Lange LA, Irvin MR, Stanislawski MA
(2025 Apr 2)
Clin Epigenetics 17(1): 54
Hu Y, Haessler J, Lundin JI, Darst BF, Whitsel EA, Grove M, Guan W, Xia R, Szeto M, Raffield LM, Ratliff S, Wang Y, Wang X, Fohner AE, Lynch MT, Patel YM, Lani Park S, Xu H, Mitchell BD, Bis JC, Sotoodehnia N, Brody JA, Psaty BM, Peloso GM, Tsai MY, Rich SS, Rotter JI, Smith JA, Kardia SLR, Reiner AP, Lange L, Fornage M, Pankow JS, Graff M, North KE, Kooperberg C, Peters U
(2025 Feb 28)
medRxiv
Fuller H, Agasaro OP, Darst BF
(2025 Feb 20)
medRxiv
Guo B, Cai Y, Kim D, Smit RAJ, Wang Z, Iyer KR, Hilliard AT, Haessler J, Tao R, Broadaway KA, Wang Y, Pozdeyev N, Stæger FF, Yang C, Vanderwerff B, Patki AD, Stalbow L, Lin M, Rafaels N, Shortt J, Wiley L, Stanislawski M, Pattee J, Davis L, Straub PS, Shuey MM, Cox NJ, Lee NR, Jørgensen ME, Bjerregaard P, Larsen C, Hansen T, Moltke I, Meigs JB, Stram DO, Yin X, Zhou X, Chang KM, Clarke SL, Guarischi-Sousa R, Lankester J, Tsao PS, Buyske S, Graff M, Raffield LM, Sun Q, Wilkens LR, Carlson CS, Easton CB, Liu S, Manson JE, Marchand LL, Haiman CA, Mohlke KL, Gordon-Larsen P, Albrechtsen A, Boehnke M, Rich SS, Manichaikul A, Rotter JI, Yousri NA, Irvin RM, biobank at the Colorado Center for Personalized Medicine, VA Million Veteran Program, Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study, Gignoux C, North KE, Loos RJF, Assimes TL, Peters U, Kooperberg C, Raghavan S, Highland HM, Darst BF
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