The objective of this meeting is to bring together leaders in the field to discuss the latest advances in stem cell biology with an emphasis on transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms of gene regulation in pluripotent and neural stem cells. It aims to elucidate the roles of transcriptional regulators and chromatin structure in defining stem cell identity. These presentations will be complemented by talks on experimentally induced cell fate changes during reprogramming to pluripotency and transdifferentiation into various cell lineages. It will further discuss efforts to capture distinct stem cell types and states from the preimplantation embryo including naïve human embryonic stem cells. Advances in pluripotent stem cells will be compared and contrasted with recent insights into the biology of neural stem cells, including discussions of their origin, specification and turnover. Lastly, two sessions dedicated to disease modeling and cell therapy, respectively, will highlight ongoing attempts to study and treat diseases using stem cells from the hematopoietic and neural systems.