In June 1984, decisions were made about the reestablishment of the Department of Biology, and the department officially reopened in September. During the reestablishment the Department of Biology of Peking University, the Institute of Biophysics of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and many other institutes as well as biologists provided valuable support and help. The department changed its name to the current name in September 2009. As of 2013, structural biologist and foreign associate of National Academy of Sciences of United States Dr. Yigong Shi is the current dean of School of Life Sciences. The school currently has 38 professors, around 600 undergraduates (including the candidates of Tsinghua University - Peking Union Medical College joint MD program) and 200 graduate students.