Emmanuel Brun
Research Director (DR2), Inserm
Head of the X-ray Wave Imaging group
Translational Theranostics team (3T) · Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Grenoble
Inserm U1209 / CNRS UMR 5309 / Université Grenoble Alpes
I develop wave-optical X-ray imaging: methods that pull attenuation, refraction and small-angle scattering out of a single acquisition, recover fluorescence and scattering maps from detectors that cannot form an image, and solve the inverse problems needed to turn any of them into a measurement. The aim throughout is to make these contrasts work on laboratory and clinical sources, not only at a synchrotron — and to give the code away so others can check the results.
News
- The Translational Theranostics team (3T) opens at IAB, co-led with Lucie Sancey; the X-ray Wave Imaging group is part of it.
- Two doctoral contracts start under the MIAI FANFARES chair: SAXS tensor tomography in Grenoble, XRF ghost tomography at CREATIS in Lyon.
- We are hiring a two-year postdoc on virtual-histology image processing for DREAMLAND — see open positions.
- The IRP LINX workshop on phase imaging by modulation is booked for late May / early June 2027 in Aussois.
Research
- Modulation-based imagingA random or spiral mask in the beam turns any source into a wavefront sensor. One reference image, one sample image, and the full wave-optical signal falls out.
- Directional dark-fieldUnresolved structure scatters anisotropically. We recover its orientation and spread per pixel — and we are pushing past the rank-2 tensor model that everyone currently assumes.
- Single-pixel sensing for fluorescence and scatteringA detector with no spatial resolution at all, plus a patterned beam, plus reconstruction — and you get a fluorescence or scattering map anyway. It is how we reach contrasts that no camera can image directly.
- Phase retrieval and inverse problemsSingle-shot joint retrieval of phase and attenuation, variational solvers with the right regularisation, and learned priors where they genuinely beat the analytic ones.
- Applications: virtual histology and heritageLung, heart and fetal tissue imaged without sectioning or staining — and, when the beam is free, ink and text hidden inside objects nobody is allowed to open.
Short bio
Emmanuel Brun is a Research Director (DR2) at Inserm and leads the X-ray Wave Imaging group at the Institute for Advanced Biosciences in Grenoble, within the Translational Theranostics team (3T), which he co-leads with Lucie Sancey from January 2027. Trained in signal and image processing and in synchrotron physics, he was previously on the staff of ID17, the biomedical beamline of the ESRF. His work covers phase-contrast and dark-field imaging, modulation-based imaging (MoBI), single-pixel sensing for fluorescence and scattering, and variational and learned reconstruction. He coordinates the ANR projects ROOTS and DREAMLAND and the Inserm IRP LINX, co-holds the MIAI FANFARES chair, and co-chairs the X-Ray & Lung Imaging Study Group of the European Society for Molecular Imaging.
Extended bio
Education
Degrees, institutions and years — e.g. engineering degree / Master in signal and image processing, PhD (title, institution, year).
Career
- Inserm — Research Director (DR2), Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Grenoble. Year of recruitment, earlier grade.
- ESRF — ID17, the biomedical beamline. Position and years.
- Earlier positions, including the US synchrotron experience — institution and years.
Research highlights
- Introduced modulation-based imaging (MoBI) (Optica, 2021): a random or spiral mask in the beam turns any X-ray source into a wavefront sensor.
- Twenty years of X-ray imaging and image analysis, from synchrotron beamlines to laboratory sources, with collaborations at Monash University, the University of Canterbury, PSI/EPFL and Xenocs.
Roles
- Co-lead of the Translational Theranostics team (3T), IAB — from January 2027.
- Co-holder of the MIAI FANFARES chair, with Nicolas Ducros (CREATIS) and Nicola Viganò (CEA IRIG).
- Co-chair, X-Ray & Lung Imaging Study Group, European Society for Molecular Imaging.
- In charge of events for X-HIST, the international society for 3D X-ray-based histology.
Where we are
The group belongs to the Translational Theranostics team (3T) at the Institute for Advanced Biosciences (Inserm U1209 / CNRS UMR 5309 / Université Grenoble Alpes). The methods developed here are meant to answer biomedical questions posed inside 3T and at CHU Grenoble Alpes, not to remain instrumentation for their own sake.
Allée des Alpes, 38700 La Tronche, France
emmanuel.brun@inserm.fr