We are pleased to announce the fourth Cold Spring Harbor conference on Blood Brain Barrier which will begin at 7:30 pm on Wednesday, December 10 and run through lunch on Saturday, December 13, 2014. The purpose of this Cold Spring Harbor meeting is to explore and encourage new conceptual approaches and to apply novel methods to the neuroprotective physiologies of BBB structures. Our goal is pair genetic model organism biological methods with recent insights in vertebrate BBB physiology and development. We hope to create cross fertilization between fields that rarely see each other and get people thinking about how model systems can help parse the regulatory networks necessary for parsimonious BBB function. The conference is intended to foster cross-disciplinary exchange of ideas and expertise between developmental and evolutionary biologists, vascular and BBB physiologists and disease oriented industry scientists interested in modifying or circumventing specific pathways of neuroprotection. While a number of speakers have been invited, please note that the majority of oral presentations will be drawn from openly submitted abstracts.