Francesco Grussu’s trained in Biomedical Engineering in Italy, at the University of Cagliari and Genoa, and obtained a PhD degree in Magnetic Resonance Physics at University College London (UCL) in the UK in 2016.

As a post-doc, he worked at UCL for four more years, developing innovative MR acquisition and analysis strategies for application in the brain and in prostate cancer.

During his post-doc at UCL, he was elected young scientist representative for the White Matter Study Group of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM), a post open at world-wide level.

In October 2020 he moved at the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) in Barcelona, to join Raquel Perez-Lopez’s Radiomics groups to provide support on prospective studies involving quantitative MR in cancer applications.

At VHIO, he was awarded a Beatriu de Pinós post-doctoral Fellowship by the Generalitat de Catalunya, and a “la Caixa” Foundation Junior Leader Fellowship in 2022.

From January 1^st 2025, he was promoted to the role of Senior Investigator within the group.

At VHIO, Francesco contributes to the design and implementation of prospective studies that involve advanced MR image acquisition and processing.

Moreover, he leads a personal research line focussed on coupling histology and MRI to narrow the gap between radiology and histopathology.

He develops computational tools that equip oncologists with MRI-based “virtual biopsies” of a patients’ tumours, with the ultimate aim of enhancing cancer detection and treatment response assessment, to accelerate drug discovery.