The TGF- superfamily can be traced at the onset of animal multicellularity, the first metazoans, and encompasses secreted polypeptides with diverse functional roles. Members of the family signal in autocrine and paracrine ways to guide tissue patterning in embryos and maintain tissue homeostasis in adult organisms. The depth of research developed by this field has helped define molecular mechanisms and has explained many but not all the functional repercussions manifested as developmental defects and disease states, when the TGF- pathways malfunction. The specific aims of the conference are three. Scientific innovation and systems- level breadth of experimental analysis are a first aim. The conference aims at integrating the molecular, cellular and biochemical understanding of signal transduction details, with the physiological explanations of the roles TGF- members play in development and in human pathologies, ranging from metabolic, cardiovascular and cancer disorders to malfunctions of the nervous, skeletal and muscular systems. To meet this aim, we have planned for a diverse program of oral or poster presentations, representing the most cutting edge themes that evolve currently in this field and fostered under an exclusive and interactive setting guaranteed by the low number of participants. In our program, we meticulously selected as wide a spectrum of scientists as possible to cover all emerging and rapidly moving fronts of research activity that encompasses the functions of TGF- members. A second aim of the conference is to provide a friendly forum where young scientists and scientists from any less privileged group of our modern society can find easy access and participate actively to the evolution of the field. The TGF- field maintains a highly competitive and ever-increasing arena of research pioneers and our second aim works under the ambition to stimulate new leaders in this field as we believe that this drives best the chances towards innovation and discovery. Our third aim is the generation of a friendly, informal and intellectuall appealing forum that fosters national and international collaborations, primes such activities among specialists from seemingly disparate areas, and cultures pairing of complementary expertise such as mathematicians with embryologists or stem cell biologists with clinicians. Having the confidence generated by the previous meetings, we believe even more today, that the rapid technological advancement that our field experiences and the spirit this conference cultivates, secure an even broader understanding of the signaling networks and their biological roles. The success we anticipate through research in this field continuously promises new diagnostics and therapeutic approaches, as proven by the active engagement of the pharmaceutical industry with the TGF- world. The collective experience built over eight previous conferences with the same, but always evolving goals, provides us with the strong confidence that our objectives are safe and thus guarantee to pave the way to the propagation of this successful field.