Inside the Structural Reforms That Made IU Indianapolis a Translational Overachiever
How a resource-constrained university built a top-15 translation engine — and what other institutions can learn from it.
Top Universities
Every university on this list represents the highest tier of U.S. biomedical research. We ranked 243 research universities across the United States on their ability to translate scientific discovery into real-world healthcare solutions, evaluated on 25 indicators across three core domains.
151
151
Illinois Institute of Technology
Chicago, IL
Illinois Institute of Technology ranks 151st among universities in the Cure Innovation Index, based in Chicago, Illinois. Research capabilities place the university in the upper half of the field, while market translation and entrepreneurial readiness rank toward the lower end.
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152
152
University of Oklahoma
Norman, OK
The University of Oklahoma ranks 152nd among universities in the Cure Innovation Index, located in Norman, Oklahoma. Its research capabilities and market translation scores fall in the middle range of the national university field, reflecting a balanced orientation between discovery science and applied work.
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153
153
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Milwaukee, WI
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee ranks 153rd among universities in the Cure Innovation Index. Located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the university shows its strongest performance in entrepreneurial readiness, placing in the upper tier of the ranked field.
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154
154
University of Tennessee Knoxville
Knoxville, TN
The University of Tennessee Knoxville, located in Knoxville, Tennessee, ranks 154th among universities in the Cure Innovation Index. The university performs most strongly in market translation, placing above the field's midpoint in that domain, while research capabilities fall in the lower tier.
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155
155
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, NM
New Mexico State University ranks 155th among universities in the Cure Innovation Index, situated in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Its performance is notably stronger in Market Translation and Entrepreneurial Readiness than in Research Capabilities, reflecting a profile oriented toward application and commercialization.
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156
156
University of Texas at El Paso
El Paso, TX
The University of Texas at El Paso ranks 156th among 243 universities in the Cure Innovation Index. Located in El Paso, Texas, on the U.S.-Mexico border, the university shows a developing profile in research capabilities and market translation, but places well above its overall rank in entrepreneurial readiness.
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157
157
Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY
Syracuse University ranks 157th among universities in the Cure Innovation Index and is located in Syracuse, New York. Entrepreneurial Readiness is the university's highest-ranked domain; it maintains an incubator and accelerator program, and offers an MD/MBA dual degree.
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158
158
Florida Atlantic University
Boca Raton, FL
Florida Atlantic University ranks 158th among universities in the Cure Innovation Index, based in Boca Raton, Florida. Entrepreneurial Readiness is a relative strength within the university's profile; Research Capabilities tracks close to the overall rank, and Market Translation places considerably lower in the field.
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159
159
Texas A&M University, College Station
College Station, TX
Texas A&M University, College Station ranks 159th among universities in the Cure Innovation Index. Located in College Station, Texas, the university places in the middle range across both research capabilities and market translation, with comparable standing in each.
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160
160
University of Montana, Missoula
Missoula, MT
The University of Montana, Missoula ranks 160th among universities in the Cure Innovation Index. Located in western Montana, the university performs most strongly in Research Capabilities, placing in the upper half of its peers and reflecting a profile oriented toward discovery.
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Cure Innovation Index Methodology
From a pool of more than 6,000 institutions, the top 303 were ranked using two dozen indicators — from scientific foundation and lab infrastructure to patents, products, and partnerships — drawn from more than a dozen federal and commercial databases, an original audit of all institutions, and surveys of more than 3,300+ scientists, industry leaders, and biomedical experts.
Explore by Category
Innovation isn't a single moment — it's an entire ecosystem. The Index evaluates institutions across two dozen indicators, grouped in three core domains that reveal the full picture of what it takes to turn groundbreaking science into real-world impact.
Insights From the Cure Innovation Index
New York State Has Built One of the Country’s Most Powerful Biomedical Ecosystems
With 27 institutions ranked among the country’s top biomedical innovators, New York’s research cluster spans the entire state, and outperforms nearly every other in the country.
Universities Face an Uncertain Future as Gap To Industry Keeps Growing
As NIH funding shrinks and industry pulls back from early-stage science, universities are rethinking how discoveries move from the lab to the market.
How Universities Became the Engine of the Biotech Industry
The Bayh-Dole Act turned federally funded research into a commercialization pipeline that built American biotech. Forty-five years later, that pipeline faces a new set of political and financial pressures that could reshape how it works.
