The Center for Evaluation & Translational Innovation is the Maragin Health Foundation's engine for moving promising science forward. Early-stage biomedical research often stalls between the laboratory and the clinic, not because the science is weak, but because the gaps between academic discovery, validation, and commercial development are difficult to cross without dedicated support.
The best science in the world has no impact if it never leaves the lab.
CETI was built to close these gaps. CETI funds translational research, develops partnerships with leading universities, and advances discoveries toward the point where industry can take them further. By independently reproducing and validating early-stage research, CETI helps establish the scientific credibility needed for commercialization and industry adoption. When programs mature, CETI partners with industry and shares revenues with academic collaborators, creating a sustainable funding model that continually fuels new innovation.
CETI funds research that is too preliminary for commercial investment but holds strong scientific promise - validating key findings and de-risking programs for future development.
CETI collaborates closely with academic research groups, providing resources and operational support to accelerate discoveries from bench to real-world application.
When programs reach development-ready maturity, CETI structures partnerships with industry, enabling scale while ensuring academic collaborators share in the outcomes.
For the Metabulin program, researchers at UT Southwestern and Columbia University developed an innovative ultra-stable insulin engineering approach with significant scientific promise. However, like many early-stage academic discoveries, the work required independent reproduction and additional validation before it could advance beyond the laboratory. Working with the MEDNA Protein Innovation Center, CETI successfully reproduced the original findings, confirmed the technology's performance, and expanded the research through translational studies designed to evaluate its therapeutic potential. This collaborative effort transformed a promising academic concept into a validated development program positioned for future partnerships and continued advancement.
University research groups are among the most productive sources of early biomedical innovation. CETI is designed to be an ideal partner for academic scientists - providing resources without displacing academic freedom, and creating shared incentives for translation.
CETI seeks out promising early-stage science in aging, metabolism, and related fields where translational support can make a real difference.
CETI provides research funding and operational support, working alongside academic teams rather than directing them.
CETI runs experiments, generates data, and helps build the evidence package needed to move a program toward development.
When programs are ready for industry, CETI structures fair partnerships and shares revenues with the academic collaborators who made it possible.
Effective academic-industry partnerships require trust, alignment of incentives, and mutual respect for different working cultures. CETI has developed a set of principles that guide how it engages with university partners.
CETI never asks academic partners to compromise their research standards. Rigorous, reproducible science is the foundation of everything CETI does.
Revenue and recognition are shared fairly with academic collaborators. CETI believes good incentive structures produce better science and stronger partnerships.
CETI operates with patient capital. Early-stage science takes time, and CETI builds programs for durability rather than speed.
Beyond funding, CETI provides project management, regulatory guidance, and translation expertise so researchers can focus on science.
CETI maintains open, honest communication with all partners in terms of progress, challenges, and decisions at every pivotal stage of a program.
Revenues from successful programs are reinvested into new research to create a self-sustaining cycle of innovation that benefits the broader scientific community.
Maragin CETI is always open to conversations with academic researchers and institutional partners working at the frontier of biomedical science. Reach out at info@maragin.org.