The scope of this, the fourth meeting, is to build upon the developments, expertise and traditional interests of the group in barrier structure, signaling and transport (including drugs) with a greater emphasis on cellular interactions within the neurovascular unit and implications for pathology and treatment including neuro-vascular regeneration, methods of drug delivery and imaging. A session ‘Beyond the BBB’ will highlight some comparative areas of blood-retinal, and -spinal cord barrier research, and the importance of the extracellular matrix and space for molecular distribution in CNS. The organizers would particularly like to encourage young researchers from academia and industry to present their work; additional time has been made at this meeting for poster presentations, some of which will be selected for oral presentation.