The School of Basic Medical Sciences was formerly called the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences of Beijing Medical College, and was established on September 14^th, 1954. In February of 1960, it was renamed the Department of Basic Medical Sciences. After Beijing Medical University was established in May 1985, it came to formally be called the School of Basic Medical Sciences. Following the integration of Peking University and Beijing Medical University in April of 2000, the school has been called the School of Basic Medical Sciences of Peking University.

　　The School of Basic Medical Sciences consists of 13 departments, 2 institutes and an educational center for biomedical research. There are 2 certified doctoral degree first-level disciplines in “biology” and “preclinical medicine” and 12 second–level disciplines. There is one second-level discipline in “basic combined Chinese and Western medicine”; 7 national key disciplines; 1 Beijing key discipline; 2 postdoctoral mobile research stations; 4 provincial key laboratories and several international advanced research bases and experimental platforms.

　　The School is famous for its abundant teaching resources and meticulous scholarship, and its staff consists of well-known scholars and experts of both domestic and overseas origin. There are now 413 faculty members, including 70 professors and 81 associate professors. 177 of the faculty have PhDs, and 62 have master degrees. We have many outstanding and talented individuals in our school. There are 4 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Science, and 1 academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. Five experts are Cheung Kong Scholar Distinguished Professors of The Cheung Kong Scholars Program. Four faculty members have been awarded the National Fund for Distinguished Young Scientists; 13 experts have received a special government allowance. The title “Young and Mid-aged Expert who have made Outstanding Contributions” has been conferred by the Ministry of Personnel on 4 faculty members; 5 experts have received the title “Young and Mid-aged Expert who have made Outstanding Contributions” from the Ministry of Health; 2 have been named as “Trans-century Outstanding Talents” by the Ministry of Education; 14 have been named “New-century Outstanding Talents” by the Ministry of Education; Two have received support from the first “Excellent Young Scientist Foundation” of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); one was awarded the title “First Middle-age Top-level Talent” by the Central Organization Department. 61 faculty members serve as thesis advisors for doctoral students.

　　The school has 1126 undergraduate students who are majoring in either clinical medicine or basic biomedical research, and the school also oversees basic study for students in four majors including clinical medicine, and dental medicine. Since the year 2001, the length of the basic medical curriculum has been changed, and students of our eight-year system are now required to obtain undergraduate training and a PhD. The curriculum aims at training students who are well developed intellectually, morally, and physically in preparation to engage in high-level scientific endeavors. Basic biomedical scientific research is a major of four year’s length, in which students learn biomedical theory and basic experimental skills. There are currently 614 graduate students including 367 doctoral candidates and 247 candidates for the master’s degree. In recent years, 7 doctoral papers have been chosen as dissertations of national level excellence. Students from our school have been accorded high praise by national and international education and research departments for being diligent and rigorous, as well as for their academic strengths and overall capacity, and for possessing great potential. Many students who have graduated have already become academic leaders in the field of biomedicine.

　　Our school provides basic medical courses for students majoring in basic medicine, clinical medicine, dental medicine, preventative medicine, pharmacology, nursing, biomedical English, medical laboratory science and laboratory medicine. We successfully carry out this multi-trajectory and multi-level program of teaching by offering more than 20 compulsory courses and 10 or more elective courses for over 3000 students annually.

　　The school now has 9 national level courses of excellence and 10 municipal level courses of excellence. There have been several outstanding teaching achievements at our school, two of which were awarded a first class teaching prize at the Beijing municipal level in the years 2009 and 2012; a second class teaching prize was also awarded at the national level in the year 2005,. Our educational center for biomedical experiment work was given the honor of being designated as “The Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center of Beijing” and “The National Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center” in the years 2006 and 2008 respectively. In 2007, 2008 and 2010, Pathology, Immunology and Human Anatomy were cited as “Bilingual Teaching Demonstration Courses” by the Ministry of Education. In the years 2007 and 2010, the school’s “Team for training and teaching innovation talent in physiology” was honored as the Beijing and national outstanding teaching team. In 2009, the school’s “Team for training and teaching innovation in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology” was awarded the Beijing and national outstanding teaching team award. In 2008, the school’s basic medicine major was cited as Beijing’s special major, and 4 teachers were named Beijing Distinguished Teacher. One was awarded the grand prize for outstanding teacher by the Baosteel Education Foundation in 2011.

　　As regards scientific research, our school focuses primarily on basic and applied research in the field of biomedicine, and has strong overall strength in scientific research. From 2000 to 2012, the school received a variety of scientific and technical awards, which numbered 132 in total. Among these, there were 2 National Prizes for Natural Sciences, and 31 Science and Technology Progress Awards from national government ministries and the Beijing city government. In addition there were 59 national and international patents awarded for inventions, and 40 other scientific and technical awards. From 2005 to 2012, faculty at our school published 2583 research papers, 1403 of which were published in SCI journals, including Cell, Nature Cell Biology and Nature Neuroscience. Many kinds of scientific projects are undertaken here with funding from a variety of sources. From 2005 to 2012, there were a total of 883 scientific projects, supported by research funds of a total of 648,300,000 RMB. 40 National Basic Research Programs of China were carried out with total funding of 114,380,000 RMB; there were 15 “863 Projects" funded by the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China with funding of 54,870,000 RMB; 16 “National Science and Technology Major Program” projects received funds of 68,660,000 RMB; 278 programs received Natural Science Funds of China which totaled 204,430,000 RMB; 125 programs received Science Funds from the Ministry of Education which totaled 37,900,000 RMB; and 65 projects received Beijing municipal science program funding which totaled 19,980,000 RMB.

　　Recently, the school has begun to augment research and development of biological technology and medical products, and engage in more extensive collaboration with large scale medical corporations. We have made significant progress in these areas of scientific development. A group of newly developed programs here has achieved outstanding results in animal experiments and clinical trails in areas of genetic engineering, pharmacology, tumor immunotherapy, therapy for autoimmune disease, gene therapy for cardiovascular disease, treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and corneal diseases with stem cell therapy, and development of diagnostic reagents, This work has a promising future indeed.

　　Our school also places great emphasis on international collaboration and communication, and we are striving to learn from worldwide advances in medical research and education in order to raise the overall level of our medical education here. We co-operate with many top-flight medical colleges and institutes, and hold international conferences. With these kinds of activities, we have established ever better relationships with outside universities and other organizations.

　　After 60 years of development, the School of Basic Medical Sciences of Peking University has become a well known educational research center whose main propose is to continue to develop multi-level basic medical education and study in life sciences, disease prevention and treatment. Our school now also serves as a training base for senior specialists in some fields of basic medicine.