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)
(2026 May 31)
Res Sq
Fuller H, Rohde R, Highland HM, Haessler J, Wu L, Graff M, Platz EA, Alkis T, Yu B, Boerwinkle E, Grove M, Kooperberg C, Peters U, North KE, Conti DV, Haiman CA, Young KL, Graff RE, Darst BF
(2026 May 27)
NPJ Precis Oncol
Antwi SO, Coombes BJ, Carlson EE, Larson NB, Rabe KG, Atkinson HJ, Majumder S, Bamlet WR, Schaid DJ, Zhong J, McKean D, Arslan AA, Beane Freeman LE, Bracci PM, Canzian F, Truong T, Atkins J, Du M, Gallinger S, Goodman PJ, Katzke V, Campa D, Kooperberg C, Le Marchand L, Neale RE, Patel AV, Wactawski-Wende J, Perdomo S, Shu XO, Visvanathan K, Van Den Eeden SK, White E, Zheng W, Albanes D, Andreotti G, Brennan P, Chanock SJ, Chen Y, Darst B, Ferrari P, Giovannucci EL, Goggins M, Haiman C, Hassan M, Hung RJ, Jones MR, Kraft P, Malats N, Moore SC, Ng K, Peters U, Porta M, Rothman N, Sánchez MJ, Sesso HD, Silverman DT, Southey MC, Milne RL, Um CY, Yu H, Yuan C, MAYO-RGC Project Generation, Regeneron Genetics Center, Risch HA, Wolpin BM, Stolzenberg-Solomon RZ, Klein AP, Amundadottir LT, Oberg AL
(2026 Apr 30)
medRxiv
Xu H, Yu G, Lu Y, Fuller H, Song S, Shen Y, Chiang CWK, Darst BF, Ye K
(2026 Mar)
Environ Int 209(): 110169
Wu AH, Wu J, Tseng C, Darst BF, Park SY, Stram DO, Larson T, Fruin S, Setiawan VW, Yu X, Wilkens LR, Hu H, Haiman C, Ritz B, Crimmins EM, Lim U, Cheng I, Marchand LL
(2026 Feb 5)
Am J Hum Genet 113(2): 392-398
Cheng S, Suger AH, Goss LB, Zhang J, Fuller H, Guo B, Lindström S, Darst BF
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