Anthropology is the study of the origin and evolution of humans and their traits. Human genetics is the study of the genetic, evolutionary and developmental mechanism of human traits. The heritability of human population characteristics and individual traits determines the common destination of these two disciplines, and the combination of these two disciplines accelerates human understanding of their own traits and evolution history. Anthropology and human genetics at Fudan university can be traced back to the human discipline and human genetics established by academician Wu Dingliang, academician Tan Jiazhen and Prof. Liu Zu-dong.

Anthropology department of Fudan university has a long history, rapid development, a complete range of disciplines and close interdisciplinary ties. It was once one of the most distinctive majors in the department of biology at Fudan University. In the 1920 s, Fudan University started teaching and scientific researching programs of anthropology. Fudan was the first university in China at that time that held Anthropology classes. In 1952, China adjusted the power concentrated in biological anthropology to Fudan University. The teaching and researching in biology and anthropology, anthropology research unprecedented power, made Fudan University the only train students of anthropology and anthropological research colleges and universities at that time. Under Prof. Wu Dingliang  (member of China's first batch of 1948)’s leadership, many professional anthropologist talents for our country has trained, he enjoyed a high reputation both at home and abroad. In 1957, Prof. Wu Dingliang and professor Liu Xian established the anthropology major undergraduate and the master recruitment center in the department of biology of Fudan University. Before the 1990s, the professionals engaged in physical anthropology research in China were almost all trained by Fudan University. The anthropology major at Fudan university was suspended in the late period of the cultural revolution, and then resumed in 1997 with the efforts of Mr. Zhan jiayong. In 2004, on the basis of the original anthropology subject of the college of life science (former department of biology) of Fudan University, the recruitment of the master's degree in anthropology was resumed, and the human biology professional doctor enrollment place was established, which is also the only human biology professional master's degree and doctor enrollment place in China. Human genetics, a branch of genetics, is another dominant subject at Fudan university, established by professor Liu Zudong, and has long been a national leader.

The organic combination of anthropology and human genetics is a unique and distinctive banner of human biology in the discipline construction of Fudan University. Research features in two combinations: The combination of life science and mathematical science, medical science and humanities science; the development and application of basic research are combined. In 1997, professor Jin li established the laboratory of human population and polygenetic diseases genetics, inheriting the academic blood of predecessors. Under the guidance of the two purposes of interdisciplinary and international cooperation, anthropology and human genetics at Fudan university entered a rapid development period. International efforts have been made in the areas of complex human diseases, the genetic structure of East Asian populations and the molecular mechanism of birth defects. In particular, a series of landmark achievements have been made in applying the research ideas and tools of human genetics to anthropological research. For example, East Asian populations of African origin, East Asian population in southeast Asia origin, Sino-Tibetan homology, south to the fusion of the Han people, East Asian population expansion , Eurasia population genetic mixing between east and west, modern and early homo sapiens genetic mixing, nitroglycerin effect of individual differences, east Asians ectoderm regulate gene mutations on the influence of multiple traits, new mutations can lead to birth defects, Taizhou large cohort study, study on longevity and aging in rugao, many complex human diseases and the character of genetics mechanism, etc. In comparison with the international authoritative institutions in 2016, Fudan university's human genetics and anthropology research results in the front, the comprehensive level in the field of international anthropological ranked second, followed by the Max Planck human evolution, become a leading team in leading international anthropological research direction, research field, especially in the Asia Pacific anthropology has become a world-class research center.

Relying on the first-level discipline of biological science and the second-level discipline of human biology and genetics of Fudan University, the ministry of education approved the construction of a key laboratory of modern anthropology in December 2005, and the laboratory was accepted by the ministry of education in July 2008. In the international gene geography human migration research project, the lab is one of the projects of global ten central laboratories (east-southeast Asian center), with the domestic and foreign relevant scientific research units established a wide cooperation relationship, origin, evolution, migration on east Asian people and the relationship between the population and other fields to conduct a thorough research, reconstructed the prehistoric human development process, greatly promote the development of the global molecular anthropology, also contributed to the rapid development of the human biology studies. The project involves 15 molecular anthropology laboratories in 13 countries around the world and shares research work on human populations in 10 regions of the world. In the first five-year plan, Fudan University has completed 60% of the world's total completed workload and become the most outstanding regional center. The team has published a series of scientific research papers in authoritative journals such as Nature, Science, Cell, NEJM, PNAS, AJHG, etc. The dissertation for the master's degree and doctoral degree in human biology has been awarded the national and Shanghai excellent dissertation many times, including four national excellent doctoral dissertation awards. The research results in the field of anthropology and human genetics have also been awarded the national major scientific research award for many times, among which the second prize of national natural science award was twice awarded as the first accomplished, and the innovation group of natural science foundation was approved in 2015.

The department of anthropology and human genetics has a total of 45 staff, mainly teachers of key laboratories of the Ministry of Modern Anthropology, 32 permanent staff (affiliated to the School of Life Sciences), and 13 staff (affiliated to the departments of liberal arts and medicine). Including: 26 professors/researchers, 12 associate professors/associate researchers, 2 young researcher, 2 young associate researchers, 1 senior engineer, and 2 lecturers.

Affiliated with Fudan university department of human genetics and human life science college, to anthropology, genetics, molecular biology and other natural sciences and humanities and medical science, the combination of anthropology and human genetics talents cultivation, through the analysis of the human genome, a comprehensive analytical east Asia genetic structure, establish the crowd spectrum structure, reconstruct the evolutionary history of ethnic groups, reveal the crowd difference, genetic resources, as the importance of physical, physiological and pathological phenotypes provide accurate genetic analysis the research object, to become the world-class center in the field of anthropology and human genetics research.