library_construction_protocol: During routine blood collection in suspected sepsis patients, 3 mL of blood was collected into PAXgene Blood RNA tubes (BD Biosciences). Total RNA was extracted using PAXgene Blood RNA Kit (Qiagen). Quantification and quality measures of total RNA were obtained using an Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer (Agilent). Samples with RNA Integrity Numbers less than 6.5 were discarded. Poly-adenylated RNA was captured using NEBNext Poly(A) mRNA Magnetic Isolation Module (NEB). cDNA libraries were prepared using the KAPA Total RNA HyperPrep Kit (Roche) for Illumina sequencing.