Although some companies are separating their life sciences and materials businesses, others are keeping these entities under the same corporate umbrella to take advantage of possible synergies at the biology/materials science interface. The following remarks, which provide some perspectives about DuPont's approach to this strategy, were delivered as a keynote address at a conference titled "Life Sciences and Materials...Successful Marriage or Divorce?" organized in Pisa, Italy, in October 1999, by the European Polymer Federation and the University of Pisa.