2024 Golden Helix Summer School, Syros Island, Greece

2024 Golden Helix Summer School, Syros Island, Greece

“Advancing Personalized Medicine to the Clinic”

25-29 September 2024

Dolphin Bay Resort hotel, Syros island, Greece

 

We are pleased to announce the 2024 Golden Helix Summer School that will be held in the island of Syros, Greece, the capital of the Cyclades islands in the Aegean archipelago. The 2024 Golden Helix Summer School will be organized in September 2024 and the theme of the Summer School will be “Advancing Personalized Medicine to the Clinic” and will revolve around the application of the most important disciplines of Genomic Medicine, such as Pharmacogenomics, Genome informatics, Public Health Pharmacogenomics, and economic evaluation in genome-guided interventions.

Also, as with previous events, we have included in the scientific program of this 2024 Golden Helix Summer school a career development and interactive sessions, where members of the Faculty will engage into lively discussions with the summer school participants about issues related to career advancement and key topics related to the theme of this meeting, respectively.

Apart from the high quality scientific program, the 2024 Golden Helix Summer School offers an attractive social program that includes a visit to the Apollo Theater in Hermoupolis, the renowned townhall and a traditional farewell dinner, allowing participants to get to know each other in a very informal way.

We have made every effort to minimize the registration fees to encourage participation of researchers from lower-income countries.

We are looking forward to welcoming you to Syros, Greece next September and to a very fruitful and stimulating conference.

The 2024 Golden Helix Summer School Organizing Committee

Co-organized by:

Under the auspices of:

The venue of the 2024 Golden Helix Summer School is the Dolphin Bay Resort hotel, situated in an ideal location in the bay of Galissas, by the seaside. Galissas is the most popular touristic destination. Galissas is located in a protected bay on the west coast of the island, which together with Danakos, a small and quiet farming village, number around 500 inhabitants. Galissas beach is long, with shallow-waters, and lined with tamarisk trees and has been awarded the blue-flag by the EU. There are various water sport activities. Area landmarks are the hill and church of Agia Pakou, immediately adjacent to the Dolphin Bay hotel, the small harbor with a quaint stone pier, the beach of Armeos, the large cave of Agios Stefanos with the water springs, as well as the chapels of Agios Mamas and Agios Kyrikos, the oldest church in Syros.

About Syros

Syros is the administrative center of Cyclades islands and is just 80 nautical miles from Athens. In Syros, the unique historical path, cultural wealth and imposing natural environment nicely blend. The island harmoniously combines the cosmopolitan and the traditional, the medieval with the modern urban, the Cycladic with the neoclassic, and the catholic with the Greek Orthodox historical tradition.

In Syros, there are more than 20.000 inhabitants, constituting the largest island of the Cyclades. Ermoupolis is the capital of Syros and of the Cyclades islands, a city that fascinates the visitor from the first moment he enters the harbor, with its breathtaking two hills that dominate the city, with the Catholic church of Saint George and the Greek Orthodox church of Resurrection at the top of each hill, and the impressive neoclassical mansions, built around the big natural harbor of the east coast of the capital city.
Created during the 1821 Greek revolution, Ermoupolis developed quickly into a big trade centre between east and west. The name Ermoupolis was adopted in 1826, dedicated to the kerdoos Ermis (Hermes the profitable). As the time went by, industries, workshops and Neorion shipyards were created in the city, leading to the economic development of Ermoupolis and to a cultural blossoming. This is also reflected in the architecture of the city, where the style created, conforms with the beginning of romantic classicism and is strongly influenced by western models.

Organizing Committee

George P. PATRINOS, Patras, Greece

Sonja PAVLOVIC, Belgrade, Serbia

Branka ZUKIC Belgrade, Serbia

Confirmed Speakers 

Keynote Speakers

Marios Kambouris, Doha, Qatar

Harald Schmidt, Maastricht, The Netherlands

Ron H. van Schaik, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Marc S. Williams, Danville, PA, USA

Plenary Speakers

Carlos Alejandro Díaz Tufinio, Mexico City, Mexico

Diego Forero, Bogota, Colombia

Cerissa French, Oxford, UK

Kariofyllis Karamperis, Patras, Greece

Stephan Kiefer, Saarland, Germany

Nikola Kotur, Belgrade, Serbia

Thorsten Lehr, Saarbrucken, Germany

Christina Mitropoulou, London, UK

Myrsini Ouzounelli, London, UK

George P. Patrinos, Patras, Greece

Sonja Pavlovic, Belgrade, Serbia

Yannis Pollalis, Piraeus, Greece

Gad Rennert, Haifa, Israel

Biljana Stankovic, Belgrade, Serbia

Vasilis Xirafas, Patras, Greece

Branka Zukic, Belgrade, Serbia

SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM

Tuesday 24 September 2024

19:00 – 20:00 Arrival and Registration

Wednesday 25 September 2024

12:00 – 14:30 Arrival and Registration

14:30 – 17:00 SESSION 1 – Moderator: George P. Patrinos 

14:30 – 15:00 Introductions

Christianna Papitsi, Deputy Mayor for Tourism – Municipality of Syros-Ermoupolis, Greece

Welcome address

Branka Zukic – Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia

Welcome address, PharmGenHub project

George P. Patrinos – University of Patras Department of Pharmacy, Patras, Greece

Ten years Golden Helix Summer Schools 

15:00 – 16:00 Keynote Lecture 1

Marios Kambouris, Sidra Medicine, Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Division of Genetics, Doha, Qatar

Genomic Diagnostics in the Era of Personalized Precision Medicine

16:00 – 16:30 Oral presentations 1 – Moderator: George P. Patrinos

16:00 – 16:05 OP1. Cost-utility analysis of pharmacogenomics-guided tacrolimus treatment in Austrian kidney transplant recipients participating in the U-PGx PREPARE study

Vasileios Fragoulakis, Margarita-Ioanna Koufaki, Candace Joefield-Roka, Gere Sunder-Plassmann, Christina Mitropoulou 

16:05 – 16:10 OP2. Economic evaluation of pharmacogenomic-guided antiplatelet treatment in Spanish patients suffering from acute coronary syndrome participating in the U-PGx PREPARE study

Margarita-Ioanna Koufaki, Vasileios Fragoulakis, Xando Díaz-Villamarín, Kariofyllis Karamperis, Cristina L. Dávila-Fajardo, Konstantinos Z. Vasileiou, George P. Patrinos, Christina Mitropoulou

16:10 – 16:15 OP3. Florine M. Wiss, Christian D. Krieg, Samuel S. Allemann, Henriette E. Meyer zu Schwabedissen, and Markus L. Lampert 

CYP2D6 Phenotype as a Predictor of Adverse Drug Reactions in Patients Treated with Trazodone: Insights from an Observational Pharmacogenetic Study (online)

16:15 – 16:30   Q&A session

16:30 – 17:00 George P. Patrinos – University of Patras Department of Pharmacy, Patras, Greece, Editor-In-Chief, The Pharmacogenomics Journal (Nature Publishing Group)

Compiling a scientific article: From an author’s, reviewer and Editor-in-Chief’s perspective

17:00 – 19:30 Free time

19:30 – 21:00 Welcome cocktail – Networking

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Thursday 26 September 2024

08:30 – 10:00 Breakfast 

10:00 – 12:30 SESSION 2 – Moderator: Branka Zukic

10:00 – 10:30 Branka Zukic – Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia

Next-generation genomics technologies for the advancement of personalized medicine

10:30 – 11:00 Biljana Stankovic – Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia

Artificial intelligence in genomics and personalized medicine

11:00 – 11:30 Cerissa French – Oxford Nanopore Technologies, Oxford, UK

Corporate Lecture: 

11:30 – 12:30 Keynote lecture 2

Harald Schmidt – University of Maastricht, the Netherlands

Systems medicine for network pharmacology and drug repurposing

12:30 – 14:00 Lunch break

14:00 – 14:40 Gad Rennert – National Israeli Academy of Scientific Medicine and B. Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

Testing the genomic medicine paradigm in a primary care practice

14:40 – 16:10 Workshop 2

PharmGenHub workshop: Bioinformatics tools for next-generation sequencing analysis in pharmacogenomics (demonstration)

Led by Nikola Kotur – Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia 

16:10 – 17:00 Oral presentations 2 – Moderator: Nikola Kotur

16:10 – 16:15 OP4. Anna Bollinger, Chiara Jeiziner, Henriette E. Meyer zu Schwabedissen, Kurt E. Hersberger, Samuel S. Allemann, Céline K. Stäuble

Systemic adverse drug reactions from ophthalmic timolol in a CYP2D6 homozygous *4 allele carrier (online)

16:15 – 16:20 OP5. Ioanna Poulida, George Mantzouranis, Vasileios Kostopoulos, George P. Patrinos

Development of a portable molecular biology and genetics laboratory for Personalized Medicine and Therapeutics 

16:20 – 16:25 OP6. Point-of-need prompt molecular diagnosis: the fusion of minimalistic extraction protocols and portable instrumentation (online)

Manousos E. Kambouris,  Stavroula Goudoudaki, Zoe Kordou, Stavroula Siamoglou, Yiannis Manoussopoulos, George P. Patrinos

16:25 – 16:30 OP7. Ion Channels as Biomarkers in Breast and Cervical Cancer

Agisilaos Balatsoukas, Diomedes E. Logothetis

16:30 – 16:35 OP8. Paola Tesolin, Giuseppe Giovanni Nardone, Alessandro Pecori, Aurora Santin, Lara Emily Rosso, Giulia Pianigiani, Beatrice Spedicati, Giorgia Girotto

Whole genome sequencing (WGS) in Italian genetic isolates: New insight into the CYP2D6 gene

16:35 – 16:40 OP9. Antonella Muzzo, Matteo Bramuzzo, Giulia Zudeh, Martina Franzin, Ute Hofmann, Elisa Lazzari, Germana Meroni, Matthias Schwab, Giuliana Decorti, Gabriele Stocco, Marianna Lucafò

Inflammatory bowel disease patient-derived organoids for personalized medicine: new insight on the mechanism of action of thiopurines 

16:40 – 16:45 OP10. Association of ABCB1 and PXR genetic variants with Tacrolimus dose requirements in Greek renal transplant recipients

Anna Tsironi, Styliani-Christina Koukidi, Korina, Anne John, Alexandra Gerou, Aikaterini Kotzamouratoglou, Anastasia Kalliga, Ioannis Lakoumentas, Spyridon Gerou, Stavroula Siamoglou, Bassam R. Ali, George P. Patrinos

16:45 – 17:00   Q&A session: 

17:00 – 19:30 Free time

19:30 – 21:00 Dinner

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Friday 27 September 2024

08:30 – 10:00 Breakfast

10:00 – 12:30 SESSION 3 – Moderator: Diego Forero

10:00 – 10:30 Kariofyllis Karamperis – University of Patras Department of Pharmacy, Patras, Greece

Population Pharmacogenomics

10:30 – 11:00 Carlos Alejandro Díaz Tufinio – Department of Bioengineering, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico City, Mexico

Lessons from the New to the Old Pharmacology: Implementation of Pharmacogenetics in Bioequivalence and Pharmacokinetics Trials

11:00 – 12:30 Workshop 3 NCODA workshop – Precision Oncology

11:00 – 11:30 Branka Zukic – Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia

Thiopurine pharmacogenomics in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia: On the way to personalized medicine

11:30 – 12:30 Diego Forero – Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud y del Deporte, Fundación Universitaria del Área Andina, Bogota, Colombia 

Advanced online tools for analysis of genome-wide expression data for precision oncology (NCBI GEO, Array Express, BioGPS, GEO2R, ExpressAnalyst, imaGEO)

12:30 – 14:00 Lunch break

14:00 – 14:30 Thorsten Lehr – University of Saarland, Saarbrucken, Germany

Drug-drug-gene interactions: The SafePolyMed paradigm

14:30 – 16:00 Workshop 4

SafePolyMed workshop (demonstration)

Led by Stephan Kiefer – Fraunhofer Institute For Biomedical Engineering, Germany

16:00 – 17:00 Keynote lecture 3

Ron H. van Schaik – Erasmus University Medical Center, Department of Clinical Chemistry, Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Genome-guided therapeutics in the clinic: Examples and applications

17:00 – 19:30 Free time

19:30 – 21:00 Dinner

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Saturday 28 September 2024

08:30 – 10:00 Breakfast

10:00 – 12:30 SESSION 4 – Moderator: Vasilios Xirafas

10:00 – 10:30 Christina Mitropoulou – The Golden Helix Foundation, London, UK

Economic evaluation in genome-guided therapeutic interventions

10:30 – 11:00 Myrsini Ouzounelli – MYO Health, London, UK

Market Access and genetic biomarkers

11:00 – 11:30 Konstantinos Vasileiou – University of Patras Department of Pharmacy, Patras, Greece

Marketing approaches in personalized medicine

11:30 – 12:00 Sonja Pavlovic – Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia

Establishing regional excellence in personalized medicine: The SERBORDIS-Inn and PharmGenHub success stories

12:00 – 12:30 Yannis Pollalis – University of Piraeus, Piraeus, Greece

Personal Branding: Identifying and Communicating Our Value and Growth Potential

12:30 – 14:00 Lunch break

14:00 – 14:30 Vasilios Xirafas – University of Patras Department of Pharmacy, Patras, Greece

Genethics: Ethical perspectives in Personalized Medicine

14:30 – 15:30 Workshop 5

Ethical and philosophical approaches in genome-guided therapeutics: Case studies

Led by Vasilios Xirafas

15:40   Departure for Ermoupolis walking guided tour

16:00 – 18:00 Ermoupolis walking guided tour

18:00 – 19:30 Free time in Ermoupolis 

19:30   Return to the Conference venue

20:30 – 00:00 Farewell Party

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Sunday 29 September 2024

08:30 – 10:00 Breakfast

10:00 – 12:00 SESSION 5 – Moderator: George P. Patrinos

10:00 – 10:30: Best abstract presentations

BA1. Antidepressant Drug Switching in the Swiss population with a focus on Escitalopram and pharmacogenetically relevant drugs: A drug utilization study using the Helsana Database

M. Roth, N.L Wittwer, C.R. Meier, C.A. Huber, H.E. Meyer zu Schwabedissen, M.L. Lampert, S. Allemann, C. Schneider

BA2. Spontaneous human CD8 T cell and EAE-inducible human CD4/CD8 T cell lesions in the brain and spinal cord of HLA-DRB1*15-positive MS PBMC humanized mice

Irini Papazian, Maria Kourouvani, Anastasia Dagkonaki, Vasileios Gouzouasis, Lila Dimitrakopoulou, Nikolaos Markoglou, Fotis Badounas, Theodore Tselios, Maria Anagnostouli, Lesley Probert

10:30 – 11:15 Workshop 6 

Career development session: Building a career in genomic medicine

Branka Zukic, Diego Forero, George P. Patrinos, Marc S. Williams 

11:15 – 12:15      Keynote lecture 4: 

Marc S. Williams – Geisinger, Danville, PA, USA

Using the Genomic Sequence to Shorten the Diagnostic Odyssey: The Real-time Genetic Diagnosis Project 

12:15 – 12:30 Summer school conclusions

Meeting adjourns

Please download the document providing some useful logistics information from the following link

We thank the following academic, charitable and corporate entities for generously supporting this event.

Grand sponsor

Gold sponsors

Silver sponsors

Sponsors

Communication sponsors

Registration fees *

Double room: 840 EUR per person

Single room: 990 EUR 

Virtual attendance: 250 EUR

Registration fees include: 

Accommodation in a double/single room for the entire duration of the Summer School (4 nights), meals (breakfast, coffee breaks, lunches, dinners, welcome reception and social event), educational material, and social activities.

Registration fees *

Double room: 840 EUR per person

Single room: 990 EUR 

Virtual attendance: 300 EUR

Registration fees include: 

Accommodation in a double/single room for the entire duration of the Summer School (4 nights), meals (breakfast, coffee breaks, lunches, dinners, welcome reception and social event), educational material, and social activities.