Report: UR One of Nation’s Leading Medical Research Universities

The University of Rochester has been identified by the journal Nature Biotechnology as one of the top 10 universities in the nation for the impact of its life sciences research.

“This recognition reflects not only the University’s success in attracting federal research funding, but our ability to translate this research into new ideas and technologies that stimulate economic activity and will ultimately improve lives,” said Stephen Dewhurst, Ph.D., vice dean for Research at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. “It is a testament to the exceptional quality of our scientists and more evidence that our faculty continue to outperform their peers when it comes to the impact of our scientific innovation.”

 

Using data from 2013, the journal ranked universities based on their research funding and technology commercialization activities. The data included the number of licenses, licensing/royalty revenue, the number of start-ups, and the number of awards and total funding from the National Institutes of Health. According to the report, the University of Rochester ranked eighth in the nation. 

In 2013, the University of Rochester completed eight licensing agreements with pharmaceutical and medical device start-ups and research supply companies for a range of technologies, including diagnostic technologies for infectious and eye diseases, medical optics fabrication, and new cell lines. 

 

During the same year, the University of Rochester received 392 awards from NIH for a total of $159 million in funding and received $27 million in royalty revenue for licenses involving University intellectual property.  

The bulk of royalty revenue came from licenses with Merck & Co. and GlaxoSmithKline for the underlying discoveries that led to the development of the vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV), which protects against the precursors of most cervical, vulvar, vaginal, and anal cancers.  The University of Rochester holds the U.S., European, Canadian, Australian, and Japanese patents for the creation of virus-like particles that are the foundation of the vaccine.

 

Other universities in the top 10 include the University of California system, the University of Washington, Columbia University, the University of Minnesota, New York University, Wake Forest University, Northwestern University, the University of Massachusetts, and Princeton University.

Nature Biotechnology is part of Nature Publishing Group. The organization’s flagship publication, Nature, was founded in 1869 and is recognized as one of the world’s leading scientific journals.