The Department of Immunology was approved as a key subject in Tianjin in 2001. The department has been on the list of the national 211 Project, Tenth Five-Year Plan and Third Five-Year Plan Key Disciplines Construction Projects, Tianjin Most Important Phase II Construction Projects, Tianjin University Tenth Five-Year Plan Projects, Eleventh Five-Year Plan and Twelfth Five-Year Plan Comprehensive Investment Key Disciplines Construction Projects. The departmentowns Doctoral Degree Programs and a Postdoctoral Research Station. It also has a Key Laboratory of Immune Micro-environment and Disease funded by National Ministry of Education, a Tianjin Municipal Key Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology and a Tianjin Innovation Team. The Immunological teaching and research group was established in 1978 and was changed to Department of Immunology in 2013. Professor Zheng Wufei, Pan Jufen，Yan Yanhua and Yao Zhi used to serve as the director of the department. The current director is Professor Liu Zhe.
Department of Immunology hasestablished an academic echelon with proper and rational age structure, education structure, professional qualifications structure and strong scientific research abilities. There are altogether 41 teachers in the department, including 13 professors, 10 associate professors, 13 instructors and 5 laboratory technicians. 38 teachers have got Ph.D degrees. As the academic leader of the department, Professor Yao Zhi has got a high academic reputation. He is currently the vice-chairman of the Chinese Immunological Society and the chairman of the Tianjin Immunological Society. He has served as the seventh chairman of the Chinese Microbiological and Immunological Society, the executive director of the International Mycoplasma Alliance and the executive chairman of the Association of Life Sciences of Tianjin Association of Science and Technology. He has won the honor of Outstanding Contribution Expert from the Ministry of Health, National Candidate of Millions of Talents Project in the New Century, Expert of Special Allowances of the State Council, Immunological Accreditation Expert in Tianjin, MasterTeacher of Teaching in Tianjin, etc. He presided over the National 863 and 973 projects and was the editor-in-chief of Medical Immunology for the 13th Five-Year Plan textbook. Professor Liu Zhe is the winner of the National Outstanding Youth Fund, the National Candidate for the Millions of Talents Project in the New Century, the Distinguished Professor of Tianjin, the Outstanding Talent of the Ministry of Education in the New Century, the First Level Talent of the 131 Innovative Talents Training Project in Tianjin, and the leader of the 131 Innovative Team in Tianjin, etc. Currently, the department owns two winners of the National Outstanding Youth Fund and several Outstanding Contribution Young and Middle-aged Expertsfrom the Ministry of Health, Immunological Accreditation Experts in Tianjin, National Thousand Talents Program Youth Project candidates, Tianjin Thousand Talents Program candidates, Tianjin Distinguished Professors and Talents of the Ministry of Education in the new century.
In recent years, the Department of Immunology has been continuously increasing its domestic and oversea influences. We have successfully held the 17th World Conference of mycoplasma in 2008 and won the honor in this field for our country. During the process of discipline construction, the scientific research level of the Department has gradually got dramatic improvements. At present, the department has undertaken and completed more than one hundred projects including Major National Science and Technology New Drug Creation Projects, National 973 Major Preliminary Basic Research Projects, National 863 projects, National Natural Science Fund projects and research projects at or above the provincial and ministerial levels, with a total research fund of more than 40 million RMB. We have won six research awards at the provincial and ministerial levels and multiple research patents. We have also made breakthroughs in the research and development of immune polypeptide drugs, and obtained national class I new drug certificates and production approvals. The department has been in the leading level in China within the research area of immune polypeptide drug, immune microenvironment and disease, cytokines and their signal transduction pathway regulation mechanism and infectious immunity and disease. Professor Liu Zhe has made great breakthroughs in the study of metastasis mechanism of solid tumors and has published research paper in Cancer Cell in May 2014, which was listed as a highlight article. In recent years, the Department has published more than 300 high-level SCI papers in top international journals such as Nature Medicine, Cancer Cell, Immunity, Cancer Research, Blood etc.
Over the years the Department of Immunology has undertaken the work of teaching Immunology for undergraduates, postgraduates and international students in Tianjin Medical University.We have won multiple honors of Excellent Teachers of Tianjin Medical University and one honor of Master Teacher of Teaching in Tianjin. In 2005, the course of “Medical Immunology” for undergraduates was awarded with Tianjin Medical University Excellent Course and Tianjin Municipal Excellent Course. The course of “Medical Immunology” for international students was awarded with University Excellent Course in 2005 and Tianjin Medical University Excellent Course in 2014.Teachers from the Department of Immunology have participated in the compilation of more than 20 textbooks, including the 13th Five-Year Plan textbooks for General Higher Education and the 13th Five-Year Plan textbooks for the National Health and Planning Commission. In recent years, the department has been continuously improving the level of cultivating talents. Over the years, more than 100 doctoral students and a large number of postgraduate students have been trained, among which have won the nominations for National Excellent Doctoral Dissertations and have got the honor ofExcellent Doctoral Dissertations in Tianjin.The undergraduates under our guidance have won the first prize of the Fourth National College Students Innovation Forum and Experimental Design Competition, the second prize of the 15th Challenge Cup competition for college students. The Department of Immunology has gathered a large number of outstanding talents, who have devoted themselves to their work and contributed their intelligence and wisdom to the glorious profession of being a teacher. The department has won May Day Labor Medal of Tianjin for many times, and has also won collective honors including the Worker Pioneer of Tianjin, the Teacher Pioneer of Tianjin Education Systemand March 8 Red-banner pacesetter of Tianjin.