The DeTAnomics group (De Sarkar lab) at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee is working towards developing next-generation tools for precision medicine by adopting computational biology approaches and big data genomics.

@CancerCenter @PC-COE
#ProstateCancer #LiquidBiopsy #DNA repair deficiency #PrecisionMedicine
#LongRead #SingleMoleculeSequencing #CompanionDiagnostics
#Therapy #Resistance

Our research centers on identifying genomic and epigenomic modifications in prostate cancer that contribute to metastasis and therapy resistance. We develop novel algorithms and perform genomics and functional analysis to identify clinically relevant markers for diagnostics and targets for precision therapy development. We are involved in multi-institutional collaborative research and closely interact with biostatisticians, clinicians, and translational scientists.

Current focus areas of research include developing strategies to break treatment resistance, particularly developing novel approaches to augment responses in advanced prostate cancers to DNA-damaging agents. Other major interests includes :

  • Developing biomarkers of radioligand therapy sensitivity in locally advanced prostate cancer
  • Developing novel methods to assess tumor genomic and epigenomic aberrant states using circulating tumor DNA

Selective Publications

  • Jacob Orme J, Taza F, De Sarkar N, Tewari AK, Naqvi SA, Riaz IB, Childs DS, Omar N, Adra N, Ashkar, Cheng HH, Schweizer MT, Sokolova AO, Agarwal N, Barata P, Sartor O, Bastos D, Smaletz O, Berchuck J, McClure H, Taplin ME, Aggarwal R, Sternberg CN, Vlachostergios PJ, Alva AS, Mehra N, Nelson PS, Hwang J, Dehm SM, Shi Q, Fleischmann Z, Sokol ES, Elliot A, Huang H, Bryce A, Marshall CH, Antonarakis ES. Co-occurring BRCA2/SPOP Mutations Predict Exceptional Poly (ADP-ribose) Polymerase Inhibitor Sensitivity in Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer. European Urology Oncology 2023; 2023; S2588-9311(23)00277-8. PMID: 38072760
  • Zhang A, Lau NA, Wong A, Brown LG, Coleman IM, De Sarkar N, Li D, DeLucia DC, Labrecque MP, Nguyen HM, Conner JL, Dumpit RF, True LD, Lin DW, Corey E, Alumkal JJ, Nelson PS, Morrissey C, Lee JK. Concurrent targeting of HDAC and PI3K to overcome phenotypic heterogeneity of castration-resistant and neuroendocrine prostate cancers. Cancer Research Communications 2023; 3(11)2358-2374.
  • De Sarkar N, Patton RD, Doebley A-L, Hanratty B, Kreitzman AJ, Sarthy JF, Ko M, Adil M, Brahma S, Meers MP, Janssen DH, Ang LA, Coleman I, Bose A, Dumpit RF, Lucas J, Nunez T, Nguyen HM, McClure HM, Pritchard CC, Schweiuzer MT, Morrissey C, Choudhury AD, Baca SC, Berchuk JE, Freedman ML, Ahmed K, Haffner MC, Montgomery RB, Corey E, Henikoff S, Nelson PS, Ha G. Nucleosome patterns in circulating tumor DNA reveal transcriptional regulation of advanced prostate cancer phenotypes. Cancer Discov. 2023; 13(3):632–653. PMCID: PMC9976992.
  • De Sarkar N, Dasgupta S, Chatterjee P, Colman P, Ha G, Ang L, Kholbrenner E, Frank, SB, Nunez T, Saliopante SJ, Corey E, Morrissey C, Van-Allen E, Schweizer M, Haffner MC, Patel R, Hanratty B, Lucas JM, Dumpit RF, Pritchard CC, Montgomery RB, Nelson PS. Genomic attributes of homology directed DNA repair deficiency in metastatic prostate cancer; Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight; JCI Insight 2021,10.1172/jci.insight.152789.
  • Wu YM, Cieślik M, Lonigro RJ, Vats P, Reimers MA, Cao X, Ning Y, Wang L, Kunju LP, De Sarkar N, Heath EI, Chou J, Feng FY, Nelson PS, de Bono JS, Zou W, Montgomery B, Alva A; PCF/SU2C International Prostate Cancer Dream Team, Robinson DR, Chinnaiyan AM. Inactivation of CDK12 Delineates a Distinct Immunogenic Class of Advanced Prostate Cancer. Cell. 2018; 173(7):1770- 1782. PMCID: PMC6084431.
  • Schweizer MT, Gulati R, Beightol M, Konnick EQ, Cheng HH, Klemfuss N, De Sarkar N, Yu EY, Montgomery RB, Nelson PS, Pritchard CC. Clinical determinants for successful circulating tumor DNA analysis in prostate cancer. Prostate 2019;79:701-708. landscape and suggests targets for immunotherapy. PLoS One 2017;12:e0183606. *co-first author.
  • Pritchard CC*, Mateo J*, Walsh MF*, De Sarkar N, Abida W, Beltran H, Garofalo A, Gulati R, Carreira S, Eeles R, Elemento O, Rubin MA, Robinson D, Lonigro R, Hussain M, Chinnaiyan A, Vinson J, Filipenko J,nGarraway L, Taplin ME, AlDubayan S, Han GC, Beightol M, Morrissey C, Nghiem B, Cheng HH, Montgomery B, Walsh T, Casadei S, Berger M, Zhang L, Zehir A, Vijai J, Scher HI, Sawyers C, Schultz N, Kantoff PW, Solit D, Robson M, Van Allen EM, Offit K, de Bono J, Nelson PS. Inherited DNA-Repair Gene Mutations in Men with Metastatic Prostate Cancer. New England Journal of Medicine 2016;375:443-453.
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