Burcu F. Darst

Burcu F. Darst, PhD is an Assistant Professor at the Public Health Sciences Division of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, where she leads research on the genetic and multi-omic basis of prostate cancer risk in diverse populations. As a member of the Translational Data Science Integrated Research Center, her work bridges genetic epidemiology, metabolomics, and health disparities research.

Research Interests:

• Identifying genetic risk factors for prostate cancer using whole-exome sequencing and polygenic risk scores
• Investigating health disparities in prostate cancer and Alzheimer's disease
• Developing methods for multi-omics data integration in complex trait analysis
• Advancing precision medicine through genomic-clinical risk modeling

Scientific Contributions include:

• Prostate Cancer: Discovery of ancestry-specific risk variants and development of clinical risk prediction models
• Diabetes & Alzheimer's: Identification of cross-ancestry protein biomarkers and metabolomic associations
• Method Development: Creation of admix-kit for admixed population analysis and LUCID multi-omics framework

Scientific Awards:

• Prostate Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award
• AACR NextGen Star Award