Hospital-based, lead investigator Ron Tompkins and his team developed a research network to address the most important biological problem that hinders major medical advances in the body’s response to serious trauma or burn injuries, the serious systemic innate immune response and sometimes fatal consequences. Drug treatments to date for trauma, burns, and sepsis have not obtained the anticipated success because the understanding of the underlying biological processes remains incomplete. By gathering well-recognized doctors, scientists, and investigators with a very broad and comprehensive base of expertise and “gluing” them together to tackle this tough problem, Tompkins’ team of disparate researchers many of whom had not been involved traditionally in trauma research established standards and broadened the scientific infrastructure in the field of injury research where little had existed previously.