Invited Speakers

Francesco Grussu

Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology, Barcelona, Spain

Francesco is a biomedical engineer specialised in computational MRI, with almost 12 years of experience in MRI research. He graduated from the University of Cagliari (BEng Biomedical engineering, 2009) and University of Genoa (MEng Bioengineering, 2012), Italy. He then obtained a PhD from University College London (UCL, UK) in Magnetic Resonance Physics (2016). He worked as a post-doc at UCL from 2016 to 2020, where he investigated new ways of acquiring and analysing spinal cord diffusion MRI scans in multiple sclerosis. During his post-doc at UCL, he visited New York University (NY, USA) in 2017 (Sept-Nov), and was elected Trainee representative (2018-2020) of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) White Matter Study Group. From October 2020 he has been a post-doctoral researcher at the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology, where he works on whole-body and abdominal MRI for precision medicine in oncology. In September 2021 he was awarded a Beatriu de Pinós Fellowship, and from September 2022 he is a “la Caixa” Foundation Junior Leader. Fellow, working to develop next-generation diffusion MRI techniques to fight cancer. From January 1st 2025, he was promoted to the role of Senior Investigator within the group.

Rita Nunes

Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal

Rita G. Nunes completed her degree in Engineering Physics from Instituto Superior Técnico and went on to work on her DPhil. at the FMRIB Centre in Oxford, UK on the “Development of Diffusion Imaging at High Magnetic Field”, supervised by Professor Peter Jezzard and Dr. Stuart Clare. During her DPhil., she implemented and optimised Diffusion-Weighted (DW) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) pulse sequences and collaborated with other researchers in clinical research studies. She completed her DPhil. from the University of Oxford at the end of 2005. In 2006 she moved to Imperial College London, working as a Research Associate under the supervision of Dr. David Larkman and Professor Jo Hajnal. Her work during this period focused on Parallel MR Imaging and led to the acquisition of the first multiband Echo Planar Images. At the end of 2009, she moved to IBEB, FCUL as Investigadora Ciência 2008 (FCT), maintaining a collaboration with Professor Hajnal, first as an Honorary Research Fellow at Imperial College London, and since April 2012 as a Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College London. Rita Nunes joined ISR in October 2016, and has been an Associate Professor since August 2025. Her main research interests focus on acquisition (pulse sequence development), reconstruction methodologies for quantitative MRI (diffusion, perfusion and relaxometry), and their application to multiple organs (brain, knee, heart). She was a co-founder and the first Chair of the Iberian Chapter of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM). She is the current Chair of the quantitative MRI study group, member of the ISMRM Annual Meeting Program Committee, and of the 2025 Congress Planning Committee of the European Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology (ESMRB).

Tiago Gil

University of Minho, Portugal

Tiago Gil is currently Associate Professor at the School of Medicine, research line coordinator at ICVS and neuroradiologist at Hospital de Braga. He was a student in the joint MD/PhD program of the University of Minho, Portugal and Columbia University, NYC, USA. He carried out his PhD studies at Columbia University, between 2007 and 2010, and his MD studies at University of Minho. While studying the role of lipid signaling in Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis, he showed that the ablation of the lipid-modulating enzyme, phospholipase D2, was protective in different Alzheimer’s disease models. Following his MD/PhD, in 2011 he started as an Assistant Professor at the School of Medicine, University of Minho. Tiago has expanded his research interests to the study of mood disorders. Using an unbiased lipidomic approach, his laboratory showed that specific lipid signaling pathways were altered in a chronic stress model, unraveling new potential therapeutic targets. In parallel with my academic work he continued my medical career. Tiago is now using lipidomic approaches together with brain imaging to study neurodegenerative disorders.