We are in the midst of a genomics revolution. The first chapter of this revolution will end later this year with the completion of the first draft of the entire human genome; estimates for the exact number of genes in the human genome vary from 50,000 to 140,000. This endeavor has been a major catalyst for the genomics revolution and has moved science into uncharted territories, which has led to the need to establish both new disciplines and a new vocabulary. Thus we now have pharmacogenomics, genotyping, pharmacogenetics, microarrays, biochips, differential display, bioinformatics and cheminformatic. The meeting provided a taste of the wealth of information that is now being accumulated under the name of both genomics and proteomics. The challenge ahead will be turning this information into knowledge and then translating this knowledge into new therapies.