Spark Therapeutics, a member of the Roche Group (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) and a fully integrated, commercial gene therapy company dedicated to challenging the inevitability of genetic disease, announced plans to invest an initial $575M in the creation of a new, state-of-the-art gene therapy innovation center on Drexel University’s campus in the heart of Philadelphia’s University City neighborhood. Through a 99-year ground lease of Drexel University’s F Lot, the new center will be located at the intersection of 30th and Chestnut Streets and will create opportunities for collaboration with Drexel University and Philadelphia’s booming life sciences community. Terms of the ground lease, including financial terms, were not disclosed.

New research on dampwood termites shows select members of the colony will experience brain changes in anticipation of cognitive demand. Drexel researchers measured developmental differences in the relative sizes of visual processing brain regions, called optic lobes, among dampwood termite castes to test whether optic lobe investment matches caste differences in exposure to visually complex environments.

A decade after Drexel University researchers made the pathbreaking discovery of a family of versatile, two-dimensional materials, which they dubbed MXenes, the University is helping to establish a global trade association for researchers, manufacturers and companies that are working with the materials. Called the MXene Association, it will serve as the professional body to establish standards and best practices, connect researchers and corporations and promote the research and development involving the materials.

Markers of the pandemic’s impact – testing rates, positivity ratio (cases among total tests), case rates by overall population and deaths – are clustered in neighborhoods, with low-income and predominantly minority communities experiencing worse outcomes than wealthier and predominantly white neighborhoods. The findings, part of the first research to look at comprehensive neighborhood-level data from March through September 2020 from three large U.S. cities – Chicago, New York and Philadelphia – were published today in Annals of Internal Medicine by researchers from Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health.

Researchers from the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute collected and reviewed published research about how autistic youth and adults use the internet to communicate and provide a framework for understanding contributions, gaps and opportunities in online autistic communities.