The Preparatory Office of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences (IBMS) was established in February 1981 under the leadership of Dr. Paul N. Yu. He was succeeded by Dr. Shu Chien (January 1987 to August 1988) and Dr. Cheng-Wen Wu (August 1988 to December 1993), who recruited a group of more than 20 scientists from around the world to set up laboratories in the Academia Sinica before the IBMS was formally established on December 1, 1993, with Dr. Cheng-Wen Wu as its first Director. Dr. Kenneth Kun-Yu Wu took over the directorship in January 1997, followed by Dr. Yuan-Tsong Chen (July 2001 to July 2010) and Dr. Fu-Tong Liu (July 2010 to September 2017). The current director, Dr. Pui-Yan Kwok, has held the position since October 2017.