The Golden Helix® Conferences are named after the house of Francis Crick (“The Golden Helix”; 19/20 Portugal Place, Cambridge, UK) to emphasize their focus on human genomics and personalized medicine. The themes of these conferences revolve around the fields of genomics, pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine. There are three different types of Golden Helix® Conferences:
- The Golden Helix Symposia,
- The Golden Helix Pharmacogenomics Days, and
- The Golden Helix Summer Schools.
These conferences provide the opportunity to establish partnerships and collaborations among senior scientists, while junior delegates can also benefit by interacting with the speakers, which may create short- and long-term training opportunities.
Since 2008, there are 32 Golden helix Conferences that have been organized in various locations worldwide, which could be used as a paradigm of a well-orchestrated effort to enrich genomics education among healthcare professionals and to increase genomic literacy among patients and the general public, specifically addressing the needs of participants from developing countries.