Brigham and Women’s Is Hosting Two $100,000 Research Competitions

Tonight, Brigham and Women’s Hospital will announce the recipients of two massive public research competitions: the BRIght Futures Prize and the Stepping Strong Innovator Awards. Each winner will go home with $100,000 toward an innovative medical research project.

The first competition, the fourth annual BRIght Futures Prize, seeks solutions to vexing problems in the medical world. It’s down to three finalists: an early detection system for the onset of asthma; a project that would ease the process of specialized blood treatments for cancer and other diseases; and “Tiny Drones to Detect Cancer,” which would create a rice-sized device that targets cancer cells. The winner will be decided by popular vote, which can still be cast today.

The Stepping Strong Innovator Awards fuels new research for clinical care related to traumatic, military, athletic, and disease-related limb injuries. The fund was established by the family of Gillian Reny, a survivor of the Boston Marathon bombing.

Finalists for this award include a robotic method of delivering bone-growth antibiotics; Boston doctor Bohdan Pomahac‘s portable machine for keeping detached limbs alive; and a system of bioprinting 3-D muscle tissue. Votes for the Stepping Strong Innovator Awards can be cast here.

The two $100,000 grants will be announced tonight at 5 p.m. at Discover Brigham, a free, public event celebrating collaboration in science, health, and technology.