The EMBL Transcription and Chromatin meeting has a long-standing tradition in shaping the field of transcriptional regulation. The meeting brings together leading experts covering all aspects of transcription from cis-regulatory function, long range regulation, 3-dimensional looping, the basal transcriptional machinery, RNA polymerase regulation and function, nucleosome positioning, chromatin modifications, chromatin remodelling, and epigenetic inheritance of transcriptional silencing. The meeting contains many talks selected from the abstracts that are interspersed with invited speakers, discussing the latest breakthroughs in transcriptional regulation.