AbouttheNorthwestSymposiumforSystemsBiology This publication is the proceedingsofthe Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) inaugural meeting of the Northwest Symposium for Systems Biology, held October 17 and 18,2002, in Richland, Washington. This is the40thyear in which the laboratory has held an interdisciplinary science symposium to address important biologicalquestions. Inyearspast,theunifyingthemewasenvironmentalsciences.This yearwebegananewseriesofsymposiaonsystemsbiology.Aparticularfocusofthese symposiawill beon identifyingcurrentbreakthroughtechnologiesand theirapplication toimportantmodelsystems. PNNLestablished theBiomolecularSystemsInitiative(BSI) toexploit the unique andinnovativetechnologiesdevelopedhereatthelaboratory,especiallyattheWilliamR. Wiley Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL). The BSI is a multidisciplinary research program thatfocuses on theareasofresearch that will drive biology in the post-genomic era. It combines cutting-edge capabilities for high- throughputproteomics,cellimaging,quantitativebiology,andcomputationalbiology. To understand complex biological systems, scientists must acquire detailed knowledgeaboutcellsignaling,andabouthownetworksregulatecellfunctions.Thiswill requireanintegratedeffortacrossavarietyofresearchdisciplines:molecularandcellular biology, biochemistry, physics, mathematics, and information science. The BSI is working to provide opportunities for scientists from different disciplines to gatherand discusscell networksatallscalesaswell asapproachesforunderstandingthemolecular componentsofthesenetworks. The theme of this year's symposium was the U.S. Department ofEnergy's new Genomes to Life (GTL) program. GTL has the eventual goal of a fundamental, comprehensive,andsystematicunderstandingoflife. In its initial implementation,GTL focusesonpost-genomicapproachestounderstanding * ComplexMicrobialSystems * ComputationalMethods * MolecularMachines:Multiproteincomplexes * GeneRegulatoryNetworks.