Graduate students Britney Pennington (BMSE) and Lyndsay Leach (MCDB) are the recipients of new fellowships in support of stem cell research in the Clegg lab in the Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering. Britney will receive the Richard & Katherine Gee Breaux Fellowship in Vision Research to support her research project aimed at developing novel biomimetic substrates for growth and differentiation of stem cells. Lyndsay, who hails from the state of Vermont, will receive a Vermont Community Foundation Fellowship to investigate the mechanism of retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE) differentiation and develop protocols to convert stem cells to RPE. Stem cell-derived RPE is a promising candidate for the treatment of macular degeneration.