On July 8, the BME departments at NC State and UNC Chapel Hill held a joint retreat at the NC Biotechnology Center. The meeting was chaired by Stuart Cooper and Richard Goldberg. Approximately 40 faculty and staff from the two institutions participated. The highlight of the workshop was a panel of university administrators who issued challenges to the participants to form a new joint BME department spanning both institutions. Speakers on the panel were from the UNC-OP, Gretchen Bataille; from NC State, James Oblinger, John Gilligan, and Nino Masnari; and from UNC-CH, Jeffrey Houpt. A workshop report is being compiled for web posting. Look for it soon at http://www.bme.ncsu.edu.