We look forward to welcoming conferees to Magdalen College, Oxford as we celebrate the first Bioorganic Chemistry Gordon Research Conference to be held outside the USA. The goal of the conference is to provide an international forum that brings together scientists from a range of disciplines to present and discuss work at the interface between chemistry and biology. In particular, we highlight work that addresses fundamental concepts relevant to individuals in both industry and academia, and identify techniques or approaches that are broadly applicable across multiple areas of research.