Pier Paolo Pandolfi received his MD in 1989 and his PhD in 1996 from the University of Perugia, Italy, after having studied Philosophy at the University of Rome, Italy. He received postgraduate training at the National Institute for Medical Research and the University of London in the UK. He became an Assistant Member of the Molecular Biology Program and the Department of Human Genetics at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in 1994. Dr Pandolfi grew through the ranks to become a Member in the Cancer Biology and Genetics Program at the Sloan-Kettering Institute; Professor of Molecular Biology and Human Genetics at the Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences at Cornell University; Professor, Molecular Biology in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Medical College at Cornell University; and Head of the Molecular and Developmental Biology Laboratories at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Dr Pandolfi was also the incumbent of the Albert C Foster Endowed Chair for Cancer Research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Last year, Dr Pandolfi left Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center after accepting an offer from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr Pandolfi presently holds the Reisman Endowed Chair of Medicine and is Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. He serves as the Associate Director, Beth Israel Deaconess Cancer Center; Director, Cancer Genetics Program; and Chief, Division of Genetics in the Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and is a Member of the Department of Pathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

The research carried out in Dr Pandolfi's laboratory has been seminal in elucidating the molecular mechanisms and the genetics underlying the pathogenesis of leukemias, lymphomas and solid tumors as well as in modeling these cancers in the mouse. Dr Pandolfi and colleagues have characterized the function of the fusion oncoproteins and the genes involved in the chromosomal translocations of acute promyelocytic leukemia, as well as of major tumor suppressors such as PTEN and p53 and novel proto-oncogenes such as POKEMON. The elucidation of the molecular basis underlying APL pathogenesis has led to the development of novel and effective therapeutic strategies. As a result of these efforts, acute promyelocytic leukemia is now considered a curable disease. Novel therapeutic concepts that have emerged from this work are currently being tested in clinical trials.