【abstract】 Background Sepsis is a systemic inflammatory response syndrome caused by infection which can result in serious clinical consequences such as sepsis shock and the multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. Novel biomarkers with high sensitivity and specificity may be helpful for early diagnosis of sepsis and for improvement of patient outcomes through the development of new therapies. Having advantages in high-throughput screening，the proteomics can be used for the separation and identification of differential proteins derived from sepsis patients’ body fluids, cells and tissues. Objective To review and summarize the research status of proteomics in sepsis and to provide reference for research of sepsis. Content This review mainly discusses the applications of proteomics in sepsis’ pathogenesis, early diagnosis and treatment. Trend Although there are still some shortcomings of proteomic technologies, its advantages are helpful to search for the valuable biomarkers of sepsis.