Shanghai Institute of Immunology (SII), established in 1979 by the Shanghai Municipal Government and Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine (formerly Shanghai Second Medical College), is the first immunology research institute in China dedicated to basic and clinical research on immune system and immune-related diseases. The founding Director was Dr. He Yu, a first-class Professor and a pioneer for modern immunology research in China. Dr. Yu was also the key founder and first president of the Shanghai Immunology Society, which is also the first professional academic society for immunology community in China. Under the leadership of Dr. Yu, SII also launched the first specialized immunology journal in China, the Shanghai Journal of Immunology. The first WHO Collaborating Center for Immunogenetics in China was also established here at SII, which was led successively by Drs He Yu, Renbiao Chen, and Guangyen Chou. Immunologists at SII were the first to use antisera to study and identify HLA polymorphism in China, an important milestone in immunogenetics study in China. Its work won top “Science and Technology Achievement Award” from the National Health Commission. In 2003, SII established the E-Immunology Institute, the first Shanghai Institutions of Higher Learning under the leadership of then SII Director, Dr. Jingwu Zang. The E-Immunology Institute was a highly successful model recognized by the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission. In 2005, SII also won the "Key Discipline" title given by Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, and was awarded the "Innovative Team” for immunology research by the Ministry of Education China in 2006.

In 2012, Professor Bing Su, the National High-level Talent Distinguished Expert and KC Wong Endowed Chair Professor of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, joined SII as the 8th Director from Yale University. With the strong support from Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, SII has become a Special Academic Zone in 2015, which is successfully renewed in in 2021. In 2013, a brand-new Department of Immunology and Microbiology (DIM) was established in the College of Basic Medical Sciences at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine with Professor Bing Su as its founding Chair. Since then, the Department and SII has been fully integrated as one unit with the support from both Shanghai Municipal Government and Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine.

At the moment, SII/DIM has 107 faculty and staff members including twenty-six Ph.D. supervisors and nine MS supervisors in SII/DIM. We also have twenty-five talented postdoctoral fellows and 137 graduate students. SII & DIM now have twenty-three independent research groups lead by twenty-three highly energetic and enthusiastic Principal Investigator (PI), focusing on different aspects of immunology including cancer immunity, infection immunity, transplantation immunity, regional immunity, autoimmunity, drug-resistant bacteria control, pathogen Many of our PI are recipients of prestigious awards such as the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars, National High-Level Young Talents, Shanghai Subject Chief Scientists, and Shanghai High-Level Talents, etc. We also have two key course teams for Immunology and Pathogenesis Course, respectively, responsible for teaching theoretical and laboratory courses of immunology and microbiology for undergraduate and graduate students at our medical school. In terms of graduate student training, the supervisory committee of SII has established the management and training system for graduate student rotation, Research in Progress seminar held weekly in English and the "Yu He Graduate Student Scholarship". By cooperating with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a Joint Ph.D. Degree Program was launched in 2018 to explore a new model of international training for graduate students. In addition, SII/DIM is currently equipped with cutting-edge core facilities, including Flow Cytometry Core, Imaging Core, Immunohistochemistry Core, Biomarker Research & Development Core, Sequencing Core, and Mouse Common Strain Collection Core. Our Cores are managed and supervised by our Principal Investigator.

SII/DIM actively interact and collaborate nationally and internationally with renowned universities and research institutes from the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Australia, as well as within China including Hong Kong and Taiwan. World and national renowned scientists have been invited to visit the institute and give seminars to our faculty and students. We established the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine-Yale University Institute of Immune Metabolism (SYIIM), a joint center for immune regulation with the Centre d'Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy (CIML). In recent years, our teams have won many Major/Key Program grants from the Ministry of Science and Technology and National Natural Science Foundation of China, and have published breakthrough original research papers in top journals including Nature, Cell, Nature Immunology, Cell Metabolism, Immunity, Molecular Cell, Nature Medicine, Nature Neuroscience, Nature Communications, Nature Neuroscience, Nature Communications, etc., and many are considered "0 to 1 breakthrough" for SII and our Medical School. SII is also the home of "Shanghai International Joint Research Center for Translational Medicine", supported by the prestigious “International Science and Technology Cooperation Base of the Ministry of Science and Technology”. We are glad to report that our Center was awarded "Super achievement" in Year 2021 national assessment.