The 2005 Gordon Conference on Motile and Contractile Systems will be held July 10-15, 2005 at Colby-Sawyer College in New Hampshire. The purpose of this conference is to encourage the transfer of ideas and information within the community of scientists who work at the forefront of cytoskeletal research, an area that is critical for understanding fundamental biological processes. The 2005 Gordon Conference will focus on dynamics of cytoskeletal elements in living cells and the functions of these complexes in cell locomotion, intracellular transport of membrane-bound vesicles and mRNAs, chromosome segregation and cell division, cell organization, and tissue morphogenesis and development.