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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.
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University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Lafayette, LA
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette ranks 231st among universities in the Cure Innovation Index. Located in Lafayette, Louisiana, the institution shows developing capacity across all three measured domains.
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University of Idaho
Moscow, ID
The University of Idaho ranks 232nd among 243 universities in the Cure Innovation Index, located in Moscow, Idaho. Idaho's land-grant institution, it conducts biomedical research in a predominantly rural setting.
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Miami University
Oxford, OH
Miami University, a public university in Oxford, Ohio, ranks 233rd among the 243 universities in the Cure Innovation Index. Research capabilities and market translation place at comparable levels within the tier; entrepreneurial readiness, at 189th, is the institution's strongest domain.
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Nova Southeastern University
Fort Lauderdale, FL
Nova Southeastern University ranks 234th among universities in the Cure Innovation Index, located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Its relative strength is in market translation, where it outpaces its standings in both research capabilities and entrepreneurial readiness, each of which fall in the lower range among ranked universities.
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Jackson State University
Jackson, MS
Jackson State University ranks 235th among 243 universities in the Cure Innovation Index. Located in Jackson, Mississippi, it is a historically Black university with a mission centered on serving underrepresented communities across the U.S. South.
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Wichita State University
Wichita, KS
Wichita State University ranks 236th among universities in the Cure Innovation Index, based in Wichita, Kansas. Research capabilities and market translation perform at similar levels, both within the lower tier of ranked universities, while entrepreneurial readiness emerges as a relative strength within the institution's profile.
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University of Alaska, Fairbanks
Fairbanks, AK
The University of Alaska, Fairbanks ranks 237th among the 243 universities in the Cure Innovation Index. Situated in interior Alaska, the university places in the lower tier across Research Capabilities and Market Translation, with both domains reflecting a broadly similar standing.
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Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science
Los Angeles, CA
Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science ranks 238th among the 243 universities in the Cure Innovation Index and is based in Los Angeles, California.
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Queens College (CUNY)
New York, NY
Queens College (CUNY), located in New York, New York, ranks 239th among 243 universities in the Cure Innovation Index. The university places toward the lower end of the rankings in both research capabilities and market translation, while its entrepreneurial readiness standing is comparatively stronger.
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University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa
Tuscaloosa, AL
The University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa ranks 240th in the Cure Innovation Index among the 243 universities evaluated. Located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the university shows its relative strength in Entrepreneurial Readiness, where it stands above its overall rank, supported by an incubator and accelerator program.
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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.
