Shanghai Institute of Immunology

Shanghai Institute of Immunology (SII), founded in 1979 by Professor Yu He (余㵑), a pioneer of modern immunology in China, SII is the nation's first dedicated immunology research institute. It laid the groundwork for the field nationally, shaped its development in Shanghai, and fostered international collaboration. Affiliated with the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, SII operates as an independent legal entity under Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine (SJTU-SM), with joint support from the Shanghai Municipal Government and the School of Medicine.

In 2012, Professor Bing Su was recruited from Yale University under the National High-Level Talent Program to serve as Director. Under his leadership, SII has evolved into a comprehensive, PI-driven international research institute. The 2025 ESI Global Rankings place SJTU's immunology discipline in the global top 1‰; the 2025 U.S. News Global Rankings rank it 28th worldwide and first in mainland China.

SII's research addresses major national strategic needs across immune cell interaction and microenvironment regulation, T/B lymphocyte optimization and disease targeting, pathogen immunology and infectious disease control, immunological multi-omics and AI, and synthetic immunology with cell and gene therapy. Since 2012, it has undertaken 473 projects (RMB 370 million total), including 232 national-level projects (RMB 302.4 million). SII has published 570 SCI papers, including 207 with impact factors above 10 and 29 in Cell, Nature, Science and their flagship sister journals.

The PI team has grown from 5 to 25, with 130 national and Shanghai talent awards generating a strong clustering effect within the School of Medicine. Since 2012, SII has enrolled 484 graduate students, 60% from China's top-tier universities (Project 985). The Yu He Series Academic Activities and Incentive Programs—including the Yu He Forum, Yu He Scholars, Young Scholars, and Postdoctoral and Doctoral Scholarships—have cultivated a cohort of outstanding young research leaders.

Through the Shanghai International Innovation Cooperation Center for Translational Medicine (Ministry of Science and Technology), SII has organized or co-organized 51 international conferences and hosted over 505 overseas experts, building partnerships with Yale University, CIML (France), and other world-class institutions.

Looking ahead, SII aims to build a world-class immunology "Research–Translation Ecosystem," driving breakthroughs in novel target discovery, immunotherapy translation, and international academic leadership, and establishing itself as the core immunological engine of Shanghai's biomedical ecosystem.

Link：https://www.shsmu.edu.cn/sii/