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 Oct 6)
Genome Med 17(1): 113
Kim D, Highland HM, Smit RAJ, Hysong MR, Buchanan VL, Young KL, Zhao C, Spracklen CN, Kilpeläinen TO, Guo B, Darst BF, Cai Y, Wang Z, Lundin J, Berndt SI, Manson JE, Marouli E, Lange L, Lange E, Fornage M, Gignoux CR, Haiman CA, Rich SS, Buyske S, Loos RJF, Kooperberg C, Peters U, Avery CL, Gordon-Larsen P, Graff M, Raffield LM, North KE
(2025 Oct 1)
Nat Commun 16(1): 8632
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 (CCPM), VA Million Veteran Program (MVP), Gignoux C, North KE, Loos RJF, Assimes TL, Peters U, Kooperberg C, Raghavan S, Highland HM, Darst BF
(2025 Sep)
Curr Dev Nutr 9(9): 107524
Lu Y, Xu H, Sun Y, Ihejirika SA, Chiang CW, Darst BF, Song S, Shen Y, Ye K
(2025 Sep 2)
JAMA Netw Open 8(9): e2530946
Lee JR, Morehead D, Young B, Tolbert V, Masembe J, Britt G, Neuenschwander L, Schuppe K, Pelman R, Johnson D, Henderson V, Darst BF, Egwuatu P, Kim SM, Wolff EM, Gore JL, Nyame YA
(2025 Sep 9)
Neurology 105(5): e213976
Wang L, Xu H, Simons RL, Beach SRH, Lei MK, Ong ML, Philibert RA, Mielke MM, Sun Y, Lu Y, Chiang CWK, Darst BF, Ye K
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