We are in a revolution. The Human Genome Project brought biology from an information poor to an information rich science, and this has caused a permanent change in its research, with causal effects on medical research. In fact, it will not be long before the general public realizes the revolution. Just as a decade ago, most people did not know about computers, so they now do not know about microarrays, DNA, and the genome. We shall move from health care that is diagnostic and remedial to one that is predictive and preventive. Each of us will have our DNA on a chip, and a doctor will tell us what will be wrong and right with us in the near and far future. Predicting diseases will enable early therapeutics, and the drugs, themselves, will come from this exciting, new research. Drugs that can benefit many will not have to be witheld due to harm caused to others because doctors will be able to discriminate. This will affect not only the quality of health care, but also its cost. Bringing more drugs to market means lower costs for each drug.

The research revolution extends to education, and beyond. Never before has it been so important to integrate research and education. Never before has it been so important to remove walls that prevent students from flexible curricula. And, never before has it been so important to collaborate. That is what underlies the CCB mission – to catalyse a new type of biology through the emergence of a cross-disciplinary biology with mathematicians, statisticians, computer scientists, engineers, and physicists interacting with biologists and physicians to attack systems problems in biology.

CCB began in April 2001 and has grown in participants and in program development. The timing could not be better because the state of Colorado has issued its plan to "make the biosciences a key driver of Colorado's technology economy." CCB provides the academic base necessary for this growth, and we collaborate with key organizations: Colorado Alliance for Bioengineering, Colorado Biotechnology Association, and the Colorado Institute for Technology.

We welcome new associates, students, company sponsors, and institute members into CCB.