All organisms are exposed to stressful conditions including environmentally imposed stresses such as elevated temperatures and irradiation, physiological stress such as rapid cellular proliferation, oxidative stress due to metabolic reactions, or pathophysiological stresses such as pharmacological agents, infection and inflammation. Even normal developmental or nutritional changes exert stresses as systems temporarily depart from and try to re-establish homeostasis. If unmitigated, such stressful conditions lead to protein misfolding, aggregation, cellular dysfunction and cell death. Recent studies strongly suggest that the ability to sense and respond to stress signals, through the activation of signal transduction pathways, transcription factors and gene products that function in protein homeostasis is critical for normal growth, development and in the protection against diseases that include cancer, cardiovascular disease and protein folding diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and prion-based disease. Furthermore, studies in model systems have established a strong correlation between longevity and the ability to mount robust stress responses. The meeting will highlight the many cutting-edge advances in the field, including the mounting appreciation of the importance of autophagy pathways to remodel cells under stress conditions and the increasing emphasis on using modeling approaches to understand stress regulation at a systems level. This GRC will emphasize vigorous discussions of recent exciting developments related to stress sensing, signaling and gene expression, diseases of protein folding and conformation, roles of stress genes in metabolism, growth and development, stress gene modulation of infection and pathopysiological states, the cell biology of stress and the roles of stress in aging. Many opportunities will be provided for both established and new investigators, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to engage in detailed but informal discussions to enhance the dissemination of new information and the formation of collaborations to advance and broaden our understanding of the role of stress proteins in human health, in aging and in disease.