The insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) are essential regulators of normal somatic growth during childhood and are critical agents of tissue repair and regeneration throughout the lifespan. IGFs also may play deleterious roles in human disease, including potentially facilitating the survival and metastasis of cancer cells, contributing to the chronic vascular defects in diabetes mellitus, and possibly exerting a negative impact on aging. The focus of the 2009 Gordon Research Conference on Insulin-like Growth Factors in Physiology and Disease will be on these disparate functions of the IGFs, with an emphasis on the molecular and biochemical basis of IGF actions in the contexts of aging and regenerative medicine, cardiovascular biology, cancer, and metabolic disease. These topics and others will be presented by leading scientists in these fields. There will be additional opportunities for discussions during poster presentations and short talks, which will spotlight the research of new investigators, post-doctoral scientists, and graduate students, as well as during informal gatherings in afternoons and evenings. Keys goals will be to understand mechanisms of regulation of IGF production, to elucidate the signal transduction pathways mediated by the IGF-I receptor that control the different effects of the IGFs, and to discern the multi-factorial roles of IGF binding proteins in both physiological and pathological contexts. An additional emphasis will be on defining new opportunities for therapeutic interventions that will enhance the positive physiological actions of the IGFs and blunt their negative effects.