In its early days, the Sols-Morreale Institute of Biomedical Research emerged as a result of the natural evolution of the new Faculty of Medicine, which had been designed with innovative criteria in the context of the creation of the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) in 1968. Recognizing the importance that teaching and research should run hand in hand as university activities, and facing the need to appoint personnel, Alberto Sols, then a Research Professor at CSIC and director of the Institute of Enzymology in the Center for Biological Research (CIB) in Madrid, was recruited to lead the teaching of Biochemistry in the new Faculty. At that time, Sols was already a prominent figure playing an important role to push forward biochemical research in Spain, having been one of the founders of the Spanish Society of Biochemistry in 1963. Sols moved with his entire team to the UAM Faculty of Medicine, was appointed as a university professor and the newly created Department of Biochemistry was established under his leadership.
A few years later, in 1975, the group led by Gabriella Morreale, also a CSIC Research Professor, and her husband Francisco Escobar, joined up from the CIB Gregorio Marañón Institute, establishing the Institute of Experimental Endocrinology. Their incorporation significantly increased the CSIC personnel conducting activities at the Faculty of Medicine, which led to the creation of the Institute of Biomedical Research (IIB) in 1984 as CSIC center on its own through the merger of the Experimental Endocrinology group led by Morreale and the Enzymology Institute directed by Sols. The IIB was physically located in the premises of the UAM Faculty of Medicine, sharing space with the university personnel who had joined the Biochemistry Department in those early years. Faculty members would acquire the status of Associated Doctors to the IIB with access to common facilities under an agreement of collaboration between CSIC and UAM signed in 1988.
The progressive incorporation of personnel from both institutions into the facilities of the Biochemistry Department of the Faculty of Medicine, along with the consequent diversification and successful development of research lines, made the construction of a new building for the IIB necessary. The new CSIC building was constructed within the premises of the campus of the Faculty of Medicine and began its operations in 1989. Part of the personnel, from both CSIC and the Biochemistry Department, moved into these facilities, which were officially inaugurated in March 1991.
In 1993, a new framework agreement was approved between CSIC and UAM, and discussions began for projecting the creation of a joint center that would encompass the personnel of both institutions. Ultimately, in September 1998, CSIC and UAM signed a collaboration agreement to create a jointly owned center named the Alberto Sols Institute of Biomedical Research, in recognition of Sols' work and influence in the development of Spanish Biochemistry. Around that time, the CSIC building expanded with the construction of new laboratories and facilities. In both the CSIC building and the Biochemistry Department of the UAM Faculty of Medicine, laboratories are occupied interchangeably by personnel from both institutions who work under equal conditions.
From 2009, the institute adopted the acronym IIBM to distinguish it from other CSIC centers with similar names and to highlight its location in Madrid.
On the occasion of the renewal of the CSIC-UAM joint institute agreement in July 2023, the IIBM modified its denomination once again adding the name of Gabriella Morreale, who had passed away in 2017, alongside Alberto Sols'. This change recognized her significance in the creation of the Institute, her extensive research contributions as a pioneer in Experimental Endocrinology, and the extraordinary impact of her work in public health. Thus, the IIBM acquired its current name: the Sols-Morreale Institute of Biomedical Research.