2026 Golden Helix Summer School, Rion, Patras, Greece

“Polypharmacy and Personalized Medicine”
21-23 May 2026

University of Patras, Department of Pharmacy, Rion, Patras, Greece

We are pleased to announce the 2026 Golden Helix Summer School that will be held University of Patras, Department of Pharmacy, Rion, Patras, Greece. The 2026 Golden Helix Summer School will be organized in May 2026 and the theme of the Summer School will be “Polypharmacy and Personalized Medicine” and will revolve around the impact of genomics on polypharmacy, and also 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 2026 Golden Helix Summer school a career development and interactive sessions and workshops, 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.
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 Greece next May and to a very fruitful and stimulating conference.

The 2026 Golden Helix Summer School Organizing Committee

Organized by:

The Golden Helix Foundation, University of Patras, SafePolyMed

Under the auspices of:

More information about the venue comming soon…

Thursday 21 May 2026 – Afternoon

13:00 – 14:30   Arrival and Registration

14:30 – 14:45   Welcome addresses and overview of the 2026 Golden Helix Summer School: Objectives, course structure

14:45 – 16:00   SESSION 1 – Personalized Medicine and polypharmacy

Moderator: George P. Patrinos

14:30 – 15:00   Sonja Pavlovic – Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia

Principles of Personalized Medicine: Technology breakthroughs and clinical applications

15:00 – 15:30   Maria Georgiadou – University of Ioannina, Department of Biomedical Applications and technology, Ioannina, Greece

Systems Biology and Personalized Medicine

15:30 – 16:00   George P. Patrinos – Hellenic Pasteur Institute, Athens, & University of Patras Department of Pharmacy, Patras, Greece 

Clinical genomic science and the example of the EmPaSafe study on genomics and polypharmacy

16:00 – 16:30   Margarita-Ioanna Koufaki – University of Patras Department of Pharmacy, Patras, Greece

Genomic intricacies of Polypharmacy

16:30 – 17:00   Q&A session

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Friday 22 May 2026 – Morning

10:00 – 13:00   SESSION 2 – Polypharmacy and innovative therapeutics

Moderator: Spiros Papakostas

10:00 – 10:30  Gerasimos Vonitsanos – University of Patras, Computer Engineering and Informatics Department, Patras, Greece

Informatics and big data in the post-genomic era

10:30 – 11:00   Spiros Papakostas – International Hellenic University, Department of Science and Technology, Thessaloniki, Greece

Bridging the gap between Bioinformatics and Genomic Medicine

11:00 – 11:30    Kariofyllis Karamperis – CNAG, Barcelona, Spain

Population pharmacogenomics perspective of polypharmacy

11:30 – 12:00    George Vasilopoulos – University of Athens, Department of Business Administration, and Panhellenic Union of Pharmaceutical Industry, Athens, Greece

Polypharmacy from an industry perspective

12:00 – 12:20   Christina Mitropoulou – The Golden Helix Foundation, London, UK

Health economic evaluation of genome-guided therapeutics

12:20 – 12:40   Vasileios Fragoulakis – The Golden Helix Foundation, London, UK

Health economics of cancer treatment

12:40 – 13:00   Q&A session

13:00 – 14:30 Break

Friday 22 May 2026 – Afternoon

14:30 – 16:00   Workshop 1 – Career development

Moderator: Maria Georgiadou 

14:30 – 15:00   Alexandra Sarma, Orange Grove, Patras, Greece

Lecture title TBC

15:00 – 15:30   George P. Patrinos – Editor-In-Chief, The Pharmacogenomics Journal (Nature Publishing Group)

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

15:30 – 16:00   Maria Georgiadou – University of Ioannina, Department of Biomedical Applications and technology, Ioannina, Greece

Development of grant writing skills

16:00 – 17:30   Workshop 2 – Build a career in science and industry 

Moderator: Christina Mitropoulou 

Sonja Pavlovic, Professor Emeritus, Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia

George Vasilopoulos, Former CEO of Galenica, Athens, Greece

Ioanna Maroulakou, Professor, Democritus University of Thrace, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Alexandroupolis, Greece 

Spiros Papakostas, Associate Professor, International University of Greece, Department of Science and Technology, Thessaloniki, Greece

Konstantinos Vasileiou, Assistant Professor, University of Patras, Department of Pharmacy, Patras, Greece  

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Saturday 23 May 2026 – Morning 

10:00 – 12:00   SESSION 3 – Personalized medicine from the young scientists perspective 

Moderator: Kariofyllis Karamperis 

10:00 – 10:45   iGEM Patras

Chronic pain and Synthetic biology

10:45 – 11:45    GPSF workshop

Title TBC

11:45 – 12:00    Summer school conclusions

Meeting adjourns

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

Grand sponsor

Gold sponsors

Sponsors

Communication sponsors