Dr. Wenske joined the Faculty in the Department of Urology at CUMC as Assistant Professor in July 2013 with a clinical focus of general urology and urologic oncology, especially the diagnosis and treatment of early and advanced prostate cancer. Dr. Wenske also leads the Department’s program on Active Surveillance of prostate cancer and uses the new Ultrasound-MRI Fusion technology for the execution of more precise and targeted prostate biopsies. This new technology allows to use prostate MRI images, that are being obtained a few days prior to the prostate biopsy, and merge these images with the live ultrasound image that is being used during the actual biopsy. Consequently, abnormal areas within the prostate that are suspicious for prostate cancer on the MRI can be specifically targeted with the ultrasound. This allows for a much more accurate sampling and overall assessment of the prostate when prostate cancer needs to be ruled out.

Dr. Wenske completed his General Surgery Internship and Urology Residency at Columbia University and New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Prior to joining our department, Dr. Wenske spent 3 years as a Urology Resident at University Hospitals in Hamburg and Bochum, Germany, and subsequently spent a successful research fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where he investigated the ‘Role of human kallikrein 2 (hK2) and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in prostate cancer onset and progression’ in the laboratories of Dr. Peter Scardino and Dr. Hans Lilja in the Department of Urology. The research was funded by a grant from the German Heinrich-Hertz foundation, as well as the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

In addition to his clinical efforts, he is determined to pursue an academic career as an independent researcher on prostate cancer in the Laboratories of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center here at CUMC. Dr. Wenske was awarded a Physician Research Training Award from the Prostate Cancer Research Program by the Department of Defense in 2013, which currently funds his ongoing research on prostate cancer and the underlying resistance mechanisms to currently available drugs in the advanced settings of this disease. His research proposal is entitled "Identification of master regulators of advanced and castrate-resistant prostate cancer under treatment with Abiraterone".

In December 2015, Dr. Wenske was awarded a Prostate Cancer Hypothesis Development Grant funded by the New York State (NYS), Department of Health (DOH) for a 2-year period. The objective of his research Imaging-guided Fresh Prostate Cancer Tissue Acquisition for the Prediction of Treatment Response is to further the understanding of prostate cancer biology and treatment response to different medications in vitro.

Dr. Wenske has great interest and dedication in clinical and basic urologic research. He published several research articles in peer-reviewed journals, wrote several Urology textbook chapters, and has participated as a speaker at several national and international urologic conferences.