research news

UB health sciences schools fare well in national ranking of NIH funding

By DAVID J. HILL

Published February 25, 2026

Print
Allison Brashear.
“Our faculty are leveraging critical NIH funding for research that is leading to new health care innovations and knowledge, all with a goal of improving the lives of people and communities around the globe. ”
Allison Brashear, vice president for health sciences and dean
Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences

Several of UB’s health sciences schools and their departments fared well in the latest Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research (BRIMR) rankings.

The rankings are determined by total funding obtained from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and measure schools of medicine across the country, as well as their departments and other health sciences schools, such as dentistry, pharmacy, public health and nursing.

“Together, our health science schools form a unified research community dedicated to advancing the health of Western New Yorkers,” says Allison Brashear, vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. “Our faculty are leveraging critical NIH funding for research that is leading to new health care innovations and knowledge, all with a goal of improving the lives of people and communities around the globe.”

The Jacobs School ranks 77th among the nation’s medical schools, an improvement of four spots from 2024 and the school’s best showing in more than two decades, with its researchers receiving $49.3 million in NIH funding in fiscal year 2025.

The School of Dental Medicine comes in at No. 13, with nearly $7 million in NIH funding, and the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences is No. 25, with just over $7 million in NIH funding.

With $7.4 million in NIH funding, the School of Public Health and Health Professions improved eight spots to No. 33, while the School of Nursing moved up 17 spots to No. 38 ($1.7 million).

Blue Ridge also ranks medical schools’ basic science and clinical science departments. Several of the Jacobs School’s departments ranked among the top 50, including:

  • Biomedical Engineering, a joint department of the Jacobs School and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 12th.
  • Ophthalmology, 36th.
  • Physiology, 38th.
  • Emergency Medicine, 39th.
  • Biochemistry, 45th.

Other departments from the Jacobs School included in the rankings are:

  • Anatomy/Cell Biology, 51st.
  • Microbiology, 55th.
  • Pediatrics, 55th.
  • Neurology, 56th.
  • Pharmacology, 59th.
  • Surgery, 67th.
  • Medicine, 72nd.
  • Pathology, 77th.