The 2009 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Red Cells follows the series of meetings on this topic that have been held every other year since 1979. This conference assembles established and promising new investigators who are working on all aspects of erythroid cells, from the developmental/environmental control of its ontogeny, to cellular/morphogenic aspects related to its unique membrane structure, to transcriptional/epigenetic regulation of its gene expression, and to disorders that follow from variations in these normal processes. By focusing on these topics, the Red Cells GRC continues to be the primary venue for presentation of the latest cutting edge basic and methodological research that it has covered throughout its history and for which it has become famous.

The meeting attracts an international coterie of researchers and provides a lively forum for active participation and discussion within intimate surroundings that makes interactions easy between senior and junior investigators, and between investigators that normally may not readily interact. The conference aims to be inclusive; importantly, many of the participants will include postdoctoral fellows and graduate students in addition to investigators who are early in their academic careers.

By the nature of its subject matter and collegial atmosphere, the Red Cells GRC remains fully relevant to enhancing the understanding of both the normal progression of erythroid cell maturation and the alterations that lead to its pathology.