The 2013 Gordon Research Conference on Directed Cell Migration (formerly known as: Gradient Sensing and Directed Cell Migration) will provide a discussion forum for the question of how eukaryotic cells or cell groups polarize and migrate directionally. Mechanisms include chemical gradients (chemotaxis, haptotaxis) and physical guidance by cell and tissue structures. This is a unique interdisciplinary conference that focuses on diverse systems including development, neuronal path finding, leukocyte trafficking, wound healing, tissue repair, model organisms and cancer. The conference is also relevant for researchers interested in the development of therapeutics aimed at disorders where cell migration is involved such as cardiovascular diseases, rheumatic and allergic diseases, asthma, and cancer. Our program includes established researchers and rising stars working on directional cell migration and will highlight the commonality and differences of molecular and physical mechanisms that regulate migration processes. The conference will emphasize basic molecular mechanisms, new concepts and models, and will also explore links between cell migration during development, immune cell trafficking, and cancer. It further will focus on novel engineered devices to test particular cell functions, mathematical modeling and the similarities and differences between single-cell and collective migration processes. The combination of speakers and topics has been selected with the specific intention of stimulating new ideas across disciplines, discuss needs for developing new methodologies as well as promoting collaborations in the field of cell polarization and migration. The session speakers, selected from a variety of fields, will emphasize novel, unpublished results directly related to gradient sensing and directed cell migration. Young investigators will be encouraged to present and discuss their findings in a supportive environment through the invitation of up to 20 additional speakers, selected from submitted abstracts, and by participation in the posters sessions. Throughout the conference, interactions between senior and young investigators will be promoted in both formal and informal settings. This conference will be preceded by a Gordon Research Seminar highlighting keynote talks by an established and a young leader in the field and include presentations by participants and in-depth discussions on the evolution of key concepts in directed cell migration over the past few decades.