People: Dr. Pier Paolo Pandolfi joins Renown, Desert Research Institute

RENO, Nev. — The Desert Research Institute (DRI) and Renown Health announced May 18 the addition of Dr. Pier Paolo Pandolfi, PhD, FRCP to the DRI's faculty of the Renown Institute of Health Innovation and as Director of the Institute of Cancer at Renown Health.

Dr. Pandolfi, a prominent cancer investigator and molecular geneticist, will be tasked with building a translational cancer laboratory at DRI's campus in Reno to expand the success of the Healthy Nevada Project “into translational medicine and create a world-class cancer research and clinical care program,” according to a press release.

Dr. Pandolfi will divide his time between Reno and Italy, also leading a cancer research institute in his home country that will foster knowledge exchange and international cancer research collaborations between Italy and Nevada.

“As a cancer researcher, my mission is to cure cancer. The Healthy Nevada Project and the combined resources of Renown Health and DRI give us access to an unprecedented amount of longitudinal data and the valuable genetic information we need to continue to improve our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of cancer and tailor approaches for treatments and cures that are unique to each individual,” Dr. Pandolfi said in a statement. “I am proud to take the unique resource of the Healthy Nevada Project, and use the information to accelerate our work to provide a population-level view of those factors that drive cancer, build better models and perhaps, timely new treatments.

"I am excited to build a strong collaborative bridge between the state of Nevada with our colleagues in Italy and across Europe, which will allow for the exchange of research fellows, physician scientists and interns.”

Dr. Pandolfi is formerly the director of the cancer center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard Medical School in Boston, and prior to that at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

A native of Rome, Dr. Pandolfi received his MD in 1989 and Ph.D. in 1995, both from the University of Perugia, Italy.

He completed his post-graduate work at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, University of London, before joining the faculty of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences at Cornell University in New York in 1994.