Oxygen is essential for life, as such, mechanisms involving sensing and responding to changes in oxygen availability have evolved to allow for organisms to withstand these events. Such adaptive mechanisms act across a multitude of scales and timelines, from changes in atomic structure, through large changes in organisms' function. Hypoxia plays a role in a variety of development processes but also participates, and sometimes, contributes to numerous human pathologies. This area of research thus involves a variety of disciplines, from basic discovery science, through to more applied ones such as medicine and drug discovery, highlighting its breath and importance. The Keystone Symposia conference on hypoxia research is the main home for all hypoxia related research. This meeting aims to bring together all disciplines and research areas involved in hypoxia. We hope to address gaps in our knowledge of responses to changes in oxygen availability; highlight new techniques and reagents to enhance therapeutic targeting of the hypoxic response in general; inform on novel systems where hypoxia research can be conducted to reveal novel mechanisms; and understand how therapeutic targeting of this pathway can allow for better clinical outcome in a variety of diseases. We hope that by sharing knowledge, enhancing collaborations, and training participants from diverse backgrounds, we will improve our knowledge and applications to improve life.