Dr. Wharton is currently Assistant Professor of Pathology and Molecular Biology at UT Southwestern, and serves as Director of the Laboratory of Molecular Pathology. As a student in the Medical Scientist Training Program at UCLA, his dissertation with Stephen Crews described how the family of basic-helix-loop-helix-PAS transcription factors engage their cognate DNA response elements. Following training in Anatomic Pathology at Stanford, his postdoctoral studies with Matthew Scott were focused on the mechanism of action of naked cuticle (nkd), a novel segment-polarity gene that regulates Wnt signaling. His laboratory currently investigates mechanisms by which the family of Nkd proteins regulate Wnt signaling in evolution, development, and disease. As a pathologist, his long-term goal is to understand how signaling networks control cell and tissue architecture in human development and disease.
