Golden Helix Summer School “Rare Genomics: Genomics of Rare Diseases, Rare Cancers and Rare Drug Outcomes”

The Golden Helix Summer Schools are international educational activities in the field of Genomic Medicine and are organized on a biennial basis, jointly by the Golden Helix Foundation and the Genomic Medicine Alliance. These educational activities constitute a unique opportunity for researchers around the world to expand their knowledge in the rapidly evolving field of Genomic Medicine and to exchange innovative ideas in the conductive environment of the Greek islands. Each Summer School aims to provide a unique academic program intertwined with an attractive social program for both invited speakers and participants, while indulging the Greek summer time. Also, the scientific program includes a career development session, where selected Summer School faculty members, coming from the academic, corporate, and/or regulatory arena, engage in lively discussions with the participants, sharing their own experience from starting their own careers and answering questions, providing essential, cutting edge information on building a successful career in the academic, corporate and/or regulatory sectors. Emphasis is also given to the social part of the Golden Helix Summer Schools, allowing participants to get to know each other in a very informal way, providing them with the chance to visit archaeological sites and historical buildings, to admire the rich Greek ancient history and to experience a traditional Greek fare organized as the farewell dinner of the event.

The 2014 Golden Helix Summer School was organized in September 15-19, 2014 on the island of Aegina (Greece) with the theme focused on Pharmacogenomics and Genomic Medicine. Two years later, the 2016 Golden Helix Summer School was organized in Syros island, Greece September 22-26, 2016 with the theme revolving around Cancer Genomics and Treatment Individualization.

The 2018 Golden Helix Summer School will be held again in the island of Syros, Greece, 26-30 September 2018. This time, the theme of the 2018 Golden Helix Summer School will be broader and will focus on the genomics of Rare Diseases. Themed “Rare Genomics: Genomics of Rare Diseases, Rare Cancers and rare Drug Outcomes”, this international scientific event will revolve around the application of the most important disciplines of Genomic Medicine, such as Genome discovery, informatics, Public Health, and drug design in Rare Diseases, Cancer and Pharmacogenomics. In this meeting, more than 30 internationally renowned plenary and keynote speakers from Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, Middle East and the US will deliver state-of-the-art lectures, while the scientific program is enriched with a career development and three 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 2018 Golden Helix Summer School will offer an attractive social program that includes a walking tour of Hermoupolis and a visit to the famous Apollo Theater and a traditional farewell dinner, allowing participants to get to know each other in a very informal way.

All submitted abstracts will be published in a Supplemental issue of Public Health Genomics, the official PubMed-indexed journal of the Genomic Medicine Alliance. Most importantly, a general public information session, specifically aiming to raise awareness of the general public regarding the most recent developments in rare diseases will be organized on Saturday September 29th, 2018.

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