Perrin White, M.D.

Biography

Dr. White is the first holder of the Audre Newman Rapoport Distinguished Chair in Pediatric Endocrinology. Recruited to UT Southwestern in 1994 from Cornell University Medical College in New York City, he is a Professor of Pediatrics and directs the pediatric endocrinology program at UT Southwestern. 

Dr. White holds undergraduate and medical degrees from Harvard University. He was a resident in pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Hospital and a research fellow in molecular biology at Rockefeller University. He was on the faculty at Cornell for 13 years and reached the rank of Professor of Pediatrics. His laboratory has studied the molecular basis of several genetic diseases of steroid hormone synthesis and metabolism. Some of these diseases affect growth, sexual differentiation or the ability to conserve salt in the blood, whereas others cause high blood pressure. Most recently, he has branched into study of a very large cell-surface molecule that his laboratory discovered by accident. It is important for development of the nervous system; mutations in this protein cause seizures, deafness and progressive blindness. 

Dr. White has received a number of awards and honors. Most recently, he was included in D Magazine's Best Pediatric Specialists list for 2020 and 2021. He also received the Ernst Oppenheimer Award of the Endocrine Society in 1991 and the Mead-Johnson Award of the Society for Pediatric Research in 1996. He has served on several advisory committees for the National Institutes of Health and several editorial boards.