Guy Lenk and Sharon Wills, graduate students in the Center for Molecular Medicine & Genetics, recently were awarded predoctoral fellowships from the American Heart Association, Greater Midwest Affiliate. They were among 24 students to receive a two-year $26,000 award of a pool of 65 applicants.

Mr. Lenk, who works in the lab of Dr. Helena Kuivaniemi, is working on a project to learn more about the regions that have been found to be linked to familial trends in abdominal aortic aneurysms. This disorder is the 13th-leading cause of death in the United States. Ms. Wills, who works in the lab of Dr. Gerard Tromp, submitted a proposal entitled, "Familial Intracranial Aneurysms: Analysis of Multiplex Finnish Families." The proposal was based on studies involving 346 families recruited to help locate genes involved in the development, growth and rupture of intracranial aneurysms and the subsequent development of a genetic-screening test.