Prominent cancer researcher Pier Paolo Pandolfi, MD, PhD, has joined the Desert Research Institute and Renown Health, both based in Reno, Nev., the organizations announced May 18. Dr. Pandolfi will serve as a faculty member of the Renown Institute of Health Innovation — a collaboration between Renown Health and Desert Research Institute — and as director of the Institute of Cancer at Renown Health.

In his new roles, he will build a translational cancer laboratory at the institute's Reno campus to expand the success of the Healthy Nevada Project, a community-based population health study, into translational medicine, the institute and Renown Health said. He also will lead a cancer research institute in Italy.