Abstract The demonstration that extracellular vesicles (EVs), carrying RNA, DNA, proteins, lipids and metabolites, play important roles in maintaining human health as well as contribute to driving disease has opened up a whole new field of research. Therefore, EVs have tremendous biologic significance and clinical potential, making a meeting focused on this area of research both highly timely and highly significant. The 4th Gordon Research Conference (GRC) and 3rd Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) entitled “Extracellular vesicles: structure and function, technology development, and clinical application" to be held July 28 - August 2, 2024, at the Grand Summit Hotel at Sunday River in Newry, Maine, will bring together a very diverse array of senior and early career investigators in both basic and clinical fields. There will be an emphasis on promoting interactions between participants to facilitate the development of collaborative and translational research. GRCs are one of only a few types of meetings that facilitate these important interactions between senior and junior investigators. This GRC will be led off with keynote presentations by Guillaume van Niel and Xandra Breakefield on EV biogenesis and on EVs as biomarkers in cancer, respectively followed by sessions covering: 1) Fundaments of EV Biology & Diversity; 2) Novel developments in EV diagnostics; 3) Novel developments in EV engineering for therapy 4) EVs in cancer; 5) EVs in immune biology and disease; 6) EVs in neurobiology and disease; 7) EVs in host-pathogen interactions; 8) EVs in preclinical and clinical settings. General issues to be focused on will be EV heterogeneity, isolation and quantification strategies, trafficking of EVs, the role of EVs in disease and therapeutic efficacy of EVs, both pre-clinically and clinically. Up to 12 open speaker slots have been reserved for early career investigators who will be selected from submitted abstracts. There also will be GRC Power Hour, designed to address challenges women and other minorities face in science and issues of unconscious bias, diversity and inclusion. In this proposal, we seek to obtain funding to support registration fees for invited speakers and discussion leaders (prioritizing women, minorities, grads, post-grads and early career researchers) for both the GRC and GRS. Overall, the GRC and GRS on EVs promise to be very diverse and exciting conferences, which should lead to important collaborations that move the field forward both to basic studies and clinical applications.