As we prepare for our sixth annual Research Day, I am pleased to announce recent noteworthy grants awarded to several Drexel faculty.

A team from the College of Medicine and School of Public Health, with colleagues from East Stroudsburg University, the Health Federation of Philadelphia, Philadelphia Department of Health, Temple University and Penn, received a $4.9 million grant from Pennsylvania’s tobacco settlement for their “Philadelphia Collaborative Preterm Prevention Project.” Approximately 80 percent of the funding, which will support the project’s research into reducing systemic inflammation and improving pregnancy outcomes in disadvantaged and minority women, will be used at Drexel. The grant was one of five health research grants awarded by the state to develop Centers for Excellence that research ways to reduce disparities in lung disease and pregnancy outcomes. This project will be carried out by the Philadelphia Collaborative Center for Research on Pregnancy Outcomes, a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional Center for Excellence, of which Drexel serves as one of three academic medical centers. Drexel faculty members working on the project are Drs. Jennifer Culhane, Marla Gold, Robert Goldenberg, Peter Katsikis, Kerry Anne McGeary, Shortie McKinney, Linda Pederson and Ronald Wapner.

In addition to projects with a regional impact, Drexel faculty members have been actively involved in federal programs with national security implications. Most recently, electrical and computer engineering faculty members Drs. Karen Miu, Dagmar Niebur and Chika Nwankpa received a three-year, $2.25 million U.S. Department of Defense Multi-disciplinary University Research Initiative Award (MURI) for “Device Development for Remote Nondestructive Testing and Measurement of Power Systems.” Working with researchers from Iowa State University, Texas A&M University, Mississippi State University and Northeastern University, the project involves isolating and diagnosing failures in the nation’s power grid. Drexel will receive 50 percent of the grant. Only two other universities in the nation—Rice and the University of California-Berkeley—received MURI awards in the Transformational Instrumentation category.

BioSensus, a company established by Drexel faculty members Dr. Ryszard Lec, Dr. J. Yasha Kresh and Dr. David M. Wootton, received $500,000 in start-up funding from BioAdvance, the Biotechnology Greenhouse of Southeastern Pennsylvania, for its NanoAcoustic Blood Analyzer. The success of BioSensus demonstrates how Drexel supports faculty research not only by providing state-of-the-art facilities, but also by offering technology transfer through the Technology Commercialization Office, directed by Vice Provost and Vice President for Entrepreneurship and Technology Commercialization Dr. Anil Rastogi.

These are just a sample of the many grants Drexel faculty members have received recently. The University is proud of all of its researchers. Please join me in congratulating them for their hard work and success.

C.R. "Chuck" Pennoni Interim President