The Department of Microbiology was founded in 1993, but the specialty of Microbiology has a history of more than fifty years in Nankai University. The Department centers its scientific research on four domains: Microbial Genomics and Proteomics, Molecular Virology, Modern Mycology, Resource Bacteriology and Engineering. Labs of Molecular Virology, Modern Mycology, Petroleum Microbiology, Insecticide Microbiology, Microbial Enzyme, Molecule Microbiology, Microbrial Resources and Environment have been set up in succession. Microbiology was certified as a national key subject in 2001and the Key Lab for Functional Genomics of Microbiology was founded in 2003.

The Department has been authorized to confer both Ph.D. and M.Sc. programs. Currently, there are 14 professors including 10 supervisors of Ph.D. programs , 8 associate professors and 3 lecturers. A highly qualified group with rational age distribution, the Department has undertaken many key projects granted by the national or local organizations, such as National 863 Project and National 973 Project. The total research funds are more than ¥20,000,000.