Complex Questions, Innovative Approaches


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The Star-Friedman Challenge, an annual contest that aims to spur cutting-edge scientific research, has announced its 2024 winners.

Among the winners: a study on fat-handling organelles in neurons, one on how climate change is affecting mass extinctions, and one on how porous water could be used to store and transport organs in the event of organ failure, the Boston Globe reports.

The projects will receive a total of $1 million in funding.

The winning researchers: Fei Chen, Boston University: The goal is to develop libraries of peptides, amino acids that serve as the basis for drugs like insulin.

They'll develop libraries of stabilized peptides to study their cell-type activity in the nervous system.

Jeeyun Chung, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health: The goal is to discover the role of lipid "droplets" in neurological disorders.Rita Hamad, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health: The goal is to identify actionable and scalable approaches for increasing take-up of the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Jarad Mason, Harvard Medical School: The goal is to create software to efficiently convert analog meteorological data to digital, and to demonstrate the significant value of historical data for climate research and more.

Miaki Ishii, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences:

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