A report on the 3rd Conference of the Consortium for Post-Genome Science ‘Genomes to Systems’ at the Manchester International Convention Centre, Manchester, UK, 22–24 March 2006 on the latest developments in post-genome science. The meeting contained over 60 presentations on a diverse range of subjects including; genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, informatics, and systems biology, and included plenary lectures by some of the world's most distinguished speakers.