Genomic technologies are generating new resources and a tremendous wealth of data. Optimization of their use requires coordinated efforts on the part of many institutions to fashion the initial organizational framework. Four years ago, Drs. Perren Cobb, Robert Danner, and Anthony Suffredini formed the Consortium for Expression Profile Studies in Sepsis (CEPSIS) to address the needs of critical care investigators across 18 academic institutions interested in applying genomic technology to the study of critical illness and injury (http://www.cia.wustl.edu/cepsis%20redirect.htm). Four CEPSIS meetings took place, in Santa Fe, Boston, St. Louis, and Bethesda. The consortium then evolved into the Functional Genomics of Critical Illness and Injury Symposium, held in 2002 and 2003 at the National Institutes of Health. (A report of the 2003 meeting may be found in JAMA 2004;291:287)