Protein translation is one of the most fundamental and important biological processes, involving numerous cellular components and energy. Although this process has been intensively studied for several decades, the regulation and pathophysiological relevance of translation to other cellular processes and diseases are not clearly understood. A broad spectrum of diseases—including cancer, infectious and immunological diseases, hematological and vascular diseases, neurological diseases, and metabolic diseases—are caused by defective translation and alterations in the translation apparatus. Thanks to the rapid technological advances in the studies of translational machinery including the ribosome, research on translation is rapidly expanding. This conference provides the best platform in which scientists and clinicians can exchange and obtain state-of-the-art information on the relevance of translation to human disease and health. The 2017 Translation Machinery in Health and Disease Gordon Research Conference is the first disease-focused conference for the broad field of protein translation. It covers areas that are not addressed by any existing conferences that are mainly focused on the fundamental mechanisms of components in protein synthesis and regulation. By bringing diverse research communities to a single site and facilitating the communication and translation of basic research to clinical applications, this conference will have significant value to the research community. Each session will focus on a specific disease area, and blend basic science on translation and the translational machinery with dysregulation of these pathways in pathological processes. Thus overlapping interests of both clinicians and basic scientists in translation-related molecules and diseases will be discussed at this meeting, with the likely synergistic emergence of new ideas, new avenues of research, and new leads for development of therapeutics.