The 2011 Gordon Research Conference on Molecular and Cellular Biology of Lipids will bring together outstanding scientists in the field to present and discuss their research on lipid metabolism, emphasizing the roles of lipids in health and disease at the molecular, cellular, and organismal levels. The meeting will be held July 17-22 at the Waterville Valley Resort in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire. First organized in 1955, the Molecular and Cellular Biology of Lipids conference is among the oldest continuous in Gordon Conference meetings. The 2011 meeting will include nine lecture sessions and four afternoon poster sessions. The lecture sessions will cover a broad range of topics, including transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulation of lipid metabolism, lipids and cell signaling, novel lipid mediators in energy metabolism, lipid trafficking, membrane lipid structure and dynamics and lipid-protein interactions, genetics and enzymology of lipid metabolism, and lipid storage and utilization in models of human disease. Over 35 speakers in these sessions will report research using a wide range of biological systems and employing multiple in vivo and in vitro experimental approaches. Several speakers will be chosen based on submitted abstracts. Lectures at this meeting are well known to stimulate lively discussions among attendees who include biochemists, structural biologists, cell biologists, physiologists, nutrition scientists, and geneticists. Scientists who attend this conference derive synergistic benefit from the high quality of the speakers, the diverse experimental expertise of the participants, the abundant opportunities for interactions, and the resplendent natural surroundings of the White Mountain National Forrest. These benefits in turn drive future advances in lipid metabolism. Participants and speakers will reflect international excellence in this medically-relevant area of science, achieving a stimulating balance between youth and experience.