Markita Landry, a faculty scientist with Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioengineering (MBIB), has been named the 2024 Laureate in Chemical Sciences by the Blavatinik Family Foundation and the New York Academy of Sciences. Landry is one of three scientists honored this year, each receiving $250,000, the largest unrestricted scientific prize offered to America’s most promising faculty-level researchers under 42.

Her work involves studying the behavior of chemicals within and between cells and building nanoscale tools to address a wide range of challenges—from measuring chemical exchanges in the brain to improving plant resiliency through bioengineering. The goal of her team’s work stretches across the plant and animal boundary lines, and often leads to synergistic breakthroughs. 

On the plant side, the team’s work focuses on engineering tiny vehicles that can transport DNA, RNA, and proteins into plant tissues with an overarching aim to create more resilient crops that help sustain the global demands for nutrient and food supplies. In human health, Landry’s work is being applied to create chemical probes that reveal valuable insights into both healthy and diseased brain function. 

She is considering investing some of the awarded funds toward pursuing a risky avenue of research that would otherwise likely be very difficult to fund.