The enzymes that deconstruct polysaccharides and in particular those of the plant cell wall share structural, mechanistic and evolutionary similarities whether for biofuels production, for digestion of dietary glycans or for myriads of other applications such as in food and feed processing. This realization has motivated a small change of title for this very successful conference established in 1999. The 2017 Gordon Research Conference now entitled "Cellulases and Other Carbohydrate-Active Enzymes" will present cutting-edge research on this broad class of enzymes which not only find applications in the industrial enzyme sector, but also in the health sector as they control the sensing and breakdown of dietary polysaccharides in the animal gut. The 2017 conference will offer complementary sessions on "traditional" lignocellulose degradation for biofuels and biorefinery, on the exciting enzymes that depolymerize polysaccharides via oxidative mechanisms, on the polysaccharide deconstruction in the digestive microbiota, and on the multiples approaches that lead to novel enzyme discovery and their complete mechanistic and structural characterization.