Maria Grazia Franzosi received her Doctoral degree in Biological Sciences from  the University of Milano and Postdoctoral degree in Pharmacological Research from the  "Mario Negri" Institute. She then served as a Research Fellow in the Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacology of the  "Mario Negri" Institute until 1988. Dr Franzosi served as Head of the Laboratory of Clinical Evaluation of Drugs at "Mario Negri" Institute from 1989 to 2002, where she’s currently Chief of the Department of Cardiovascular Research.

She has considerable experience in clinical trials, particularly cardiovascular; she has served on the Scientific Secretariat of the GISSI (Gruppo Italiano per lo Studio  della Sopravvivenza nell'Infarto Miocardico, endorsed by the Mario Negri Institute and the National Association of Hospital Cardiologists), with responsibility for central coordination of GISSI-1, GISSI-2 and GISSI-3 studies from 1984 to 1993. The results of these large-scale trials, involving most of the coronary care units in Italy, have substantially changed physicians’ approaches to patients with acute myocardial infarction.
Dr Franzosi is member of the Steering Committees of GISSI-Prevenzione, GISSI-HF and GISSI-AF studies.
She has served on the Steering Committee of international clinical research networks as ISIS (International Study on Infarct Survival, coordinated by Oxford University, UK), and OASIS (Organization to Assess Strategies for Ischemic Syndromes, coordinated by McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada). She has been National Coordinator for Italy of the CORE, OASIS-2, and CURE trials, and for the INTER-HEART (an international case-control study of risk factors for acute myocardial infarction). She is currently National Coordinator of MICHELANGELO (OASIS-5 and OASIS-6) and ACTIVE trials.

Dr Franzosi’s research interests cover the methodology of clinical trials, the drug epidemiology, the epidemiology of environmental and genetic risk factors for coronary disease, the pharmacogenetics, and the genetic epidemiology. She is involved in the PROCARDIS Research Programme - A genome-wide strategy to identify susceptibility loci in precocious coronary artery disease - aimed to identify novel genes and genetic variants that confer susceptibility to coronary artery disease, using linkage and association mapping, candidate gene and mutational analysis approaches. a collaboration among the Mario Negri Institute,  the University of Oxford, the Institute for Arteriosclerosis Research, University of Münster, and the Institute for Atherosclerosis Research, Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm.

Dr Franzosi is a member of the Society for Clinical Trials and of the New York Academy of Sciences. She has contributed more than 250 peer-reviewed articles, abstracts, book chapters, and invited publications.