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.

Drexel University’s Leonard Pearlstein Gallery will re-open on Friday, April 2, 2021 after COVID-19 closed the doors to its contemporary art space for the last year. Fittingly, the Pearlstein Gallery will open with a new exhibition, called Breathing Room, presented in collaboration with local gallery Twelve Gates Arts.

More than one out of every 10 seniors (10.5%) enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan, also known as a Medicare managed care option, and living in a rural area, switched to traditional Medicare during 2010-2016. The switch was driven primarily due to low satisfaction with care access, according to a study published this week in Health Affairs from researchers at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health. 

Researchers from the Center for Weight, Eating and Lifestyle Science (WELL Center) in the College of Arts and Sciences at Drexel University systematically reviewed numerous independently published guidelines for having conversations with children about weight status to analyze their content, consistency, actionability and scientific support. They recommend future guidelines unify their messages for caregivers and health care professionals and be better supported by scholarly data.

Researchers from Drexel University will be working with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) on a partnership aimed at enhancing efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on public transportation. Through a recently formed partnership, the institutions are pursuing a federal grant for research into risk assessment, mitigation and communication strategies that will help keep riders safe and healthy.

Researchers at Drexel University’s College of Engineering have reported that fabric coated with a conductive, two-dimensional material called MXene, is highly effective at blocking electromagnetic waves and potentially harmful radiation. The discovery is a key development for efforts to weave technological capabilities into clothing and accessories.

Drexel University has appointed three new members to its Board of Trustees. The new members are Alfred F. Altomari, chair and CEO of Agile Therapeutics; Angela Dowd-Burton, president and CEO of Dowd-Burton and Associates; and Jerry James Martin, a retired senior Federal Bank regulator with over 37 years at the United States Treasury Department.

A $9 million gift from Drexel University alumna Dana Dornsife and her husband David to the University’s School of Public Health will help launch a new Center on Racism and Health, recruit and retain faculty experts on racial inequities in health and endow the deanship for public health. The longtime philanthropists, widely known for their humanitarian efforts, are the largest single benefactors in the University’s history, having donated more than $70 million. The School of Public Health was named in their honor after a $45 million gift in 2015.

Even in a strong market, tobacco smoke residue in a home may discourage buyers from considering a property, according to a survey of 329 realtors in four Philadelphia-area counties published this month in the journal Tobacco Regulatory Science.

New antennas so thin that they can be sprayed into place are also robust enough to provide a strong signal at bandwidths that will be used by fifth-generation (5G) mobile devices. Performance results for the antennas, which are made from a new type of two-dimensional material called MXene, were recently reported by researchers at Drexel University and could have rammifications for mobile, wearable and connected “internet of things” (IoT) technology.

Drexel University will celebrate the virtual opening of its new Center for Black Culture Nov. 12, with a "Virtual Kickback" to welcome Black students, faculty, professional staff, alumni and allies.  The Center will serve as a resource for the University community to gain a greater understanding of the Black experience and support a welcoming and wholly inclusive campus environment.

Using administrative data from the Medicaid Analytic eXtract (MAX), researchers from Drexel University’s A.J. Drexel Autism Institute found a substantial increase in the percent of adults receiving services for autism in the Medicaid population from 2008-2012.

In advance of Native American Heritage Month, Drexel University will present (S)Heroes Among Us, a public art event that will be streamed on the Twitch channel of Drexel’s Pearlstein Gallery on Friday, Oct.18, 2020 at 1 p.m.  Three Philadelphia-area artists, Priscilla Bell, BUSTA and Leon Rainbow, will paint murals to the sounds of a deejay informed by native music at 3401 Filbert Street in the yard of the gallery.

“Visioning the Future of the Philadelphia Energy Solutions Refinery Complex,” is a report about  the potential long-term future of the former 1,400-acre Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) oil refinery site on the Lower Schuylkill. The report was designed to spark a conversation about how to ensure the long-term development of the site allows connectivity to the rest of the city and yields equitable economic and environmental benefits to the city and its residents. The report was created through a community visioning process funded by a grant from the William Penn Foundation.   

A neighborhood’s overall socioeconomic status, including income and education-level, may influence its residents’ risk of chronic kidney disease, according to a study recently published in SSM Population Health by researchers from Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health.

A team of Drexel University College of Medicine researchers is advancing a way to destroy cancer cells exploiting "synthetic lethality," which is caused by deficiency in the DNA damage response (DDR) pathway. Synthetic lethality occurs when deficiencies in each of any two genes can be tolerated by the cell but the combination of these two deficiencies is lethal.

There’s a lot to talk about right now and social distancing hasn’t made it easy to get it all out. Drexel University Professor Frank Lee, PhD, who is known for visually appealing and nostalgic architectural art installations, is hoping to provide a forum for conversation with some assistance from a seven-story building in Philadelphia.

Before China declared giant pandas a protected species in 1962 – hunters in pursuit of the black and white bear used dogs to track them. Since then measures have been put in place to protect the vulnerable pandas, but more than half a century later, dogs are still jeopardizing their safety, according to a group of researchers that included Drexel’s James Spotila, PhD.

As we welcome wireless technology into more areas of life, the additional electronic bustle is making for an electromagnetically noisy neighborhood. In hopes of limiting the extra traffic, researchers at Drexel University have been testing two-dimensional materials known for their interference-blocking abilities. Their latest discovery, reported in the journal Science, is of the exceptional shielding ability of a new two-dimensional material that can absorb electromagnetic interference rather than just deflecting back into the fray.

Drexel University has announced that its varsity athletics teams will not be competing in intercollegiate athletics this fall due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes teams that would be competing in both championship and non-championship seasons.

Increasing state and local funding for environmental, educational and social services may lower infant mortality among those at highest risk, particularly among infants born to teenage mothers, according to findings published this week in the journal Pediatrics from researchers at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health.

Tower Health and Drexel University celebrated an official “Topping Off” ceremony for the development of an additional site location of Drexel University College of Medicine at Tower Health, to be opened in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania.

There is no doubt that the COVID-19 crisis is affecting the U.S. economy and labor markets in an unprecedented way. The leisure, hospitality and retail industries have been hit the hardest by shutdown orders nationwide but new research that uses data from Homebase, a time-tracking software, to provide real-time employment estimates shows that the report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, expected later this week, may not capture the full extent of the contraction.

From snowflakes to quartz, nature’s crystalline structures form with a reliable, systemic symmetry. Researchers at Drexel University, who study the formation of crystalline materials, have shown that it’s now possible to control how crystals grow – including interrupting the symmetrical growth of flat crystals and inducing them to form hollow crystal spheres. The discovery is part of a broader design effort focused on the encapsulation of medicine for targeted drug treatments.

Researchers at Drexel University’s C. & J. Nyheim Plasma Institute are modifying an air sterilization system they created to combat the threat of anthrax attacks post-9-11 in hopes it can now help to ward off COVID-19.

In a recent paper published in the Journal of Marketing Analytics, LeBow College of Businessan assistant professor of Decision Sciences and Management Information Systems at Drexel University’s Matthew Schneider, PhD, and Dawn Iacobucci, PhD, of Vanderbilt University, proposed a new methodology that permanently alters survey datasets to protect consumers’ privacy —when data is shared— while still preserving a level of reasonable accuracy for these datasets.