The 10+1 Santorini Conference: Systems Medicine, Personalised Health and Therapy. “The Odyssey from Hope to Practice: Patient First. Keep Ithaca always in your mind”, Santorini, Greece, 21-24 May 2024
Sofia Siest, President of the Santorini Conferences Association (SCs), Bernécourt, France
&
Stavroula Kanoni, General Secretary of the Santorini Conferences Association (SCs), Bernécourt, France
The Santorini Conferences can be considered the first in the field of Personalised Medicine (with the first Conference held in 2002) and today, one of the most important international events, with educational grants and industry sponsorships to support the overall operations of the Conference.
Based on the tradition and history of the Santorini Conferences, held every 2 years since 2002, The 10+1 Santorini conference on Systems Medicine, Personalised Health & Therapy – “The Odyssey from Hope to Practice: Patient First. Keep Ithaca always in your mind” – took place in Santorini, from 21-24 May 2024. Continuing the theme of previous meetings, this edition once again drew on Greek mythology, reflecting both the spirit of the island and the challenges of Personalised Medicine that must be resolved and overcome for the benefit of the patient.
The Conference was organised under the auspices of the Santorini Conferences Association (SCs), the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC), the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM) and the Hellenic Society of Pharmacogenomics and personalized Diagnosis and Therapy (EEPHARM).
It was further sponsored by key companies: Randox as the Platinum Sponsor; MENARINI Silicon Biosystems as the Gold Sponsor; Transgène and PharmGenetix as Bronze Sponsors and MultiplAl as additional sponsor. The event was also bolstered by specific support from the Santorini Conferences Association (SCs), The Austrian Society for Laboratory Medicine & Clinical Chemistry (OGLMKC), the publisher “De Gruyter” and the journal Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM), the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC), the European Federation of Laboratory Medicine (EFLM) and further enhanced with a scientific meeting supported by the VEGF Consortium.
The 10+1 Santorini Conference, led by Sofia Siest, President of the Santorini Conferences Association, Bernécourt, France, featured a diverse and innovative scientific program. The event showcased the work of 38 distinguished international speakers, who shared recent advances in personalized medicine with 110 attendees across 9 distinct sessions, 8 oral communications and 31 poster presentations. Two special poster prizes were awarded in memory of Gérard Siest, the founder of the Santorini conference series. Silvia Rocchiccioli and her team received the IFCC sponsored – Gerard SIEST Poster Award, for their work on ‘Diagnostic potential of microRNAs miR-19a, miR-92a, miR-193a and miR-210 in colorectal cancer’.
Marija Fabijanec and her team won the EFLM sponsored – Gerard SIEST Poster Award for their work on “Saliva Proteome of Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis: A Pilot Study to demonstrate its clinical utility”.
The event was highly successful and of great scientific quality, attracting many world-renowned delegates – including researchers, scientists, biologists, pathologists, oncologists, genetic epidemiologists, pharmacogeneticists and biobanking experts – from both the academia and industry across 21 countries.
The Conference commenced with a Welcome message from the Presidents of the Santorini Conferences Association (SCs), the IFCC and the EFLM. This was followed by a Keynote lecture on “Application of Big Data Analytics to Harmonize Reference Intervals Across Populations and Across Analytical Platforms” and the day concluded with a plenary lecture on “Multi-omics profiling in the era of Precision Medicine”.
The second day was focused on: “–Common denominators of chronic diseases – Diagnostics, where we are”, “Advances in Cancer detection and treatment with Liquid biopsy”, “Omics + data science: A match made in heaven” and also included a “Flash Communications” session.
The third day sessions were on “Immunology versus genomics: A marriage never happened”, “Immunology biomarkers in Oncology precision” and “AI-facilitated integrated risk scores: From bench to bedside for personalized medicine”. Two “Oral Communications” sessions closed this 3rd day.
Finally, the fourth and last day concluded with a session on “Pharmacogenomics: Clinical translation – Now and Future – Part I and II” and a “Panel discussion with speakers on Pharmacogenomics” moderated by specialists of pharmacogenomics interpretation.
Quality matters in Biobanking intended to be implemented in biobanks and to supply researchers with high quality samples fitted for an intended use were highlighted in a specific to the VEGF Consortium scientific meeting open to all attendees.
A closing presentation was made by Sofia Siest, who pointed out the remaining principal Patient’s Health Care questions for creating safer personalised medications to be presented in the next Santorini Conference, The 10+2 Santorini Conference to be held from May 26 to May 29, 2026, in Santorini.
Detailed information on the scientific content of The 10+1 Santorini Conference can be found online
at: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/cclm-2024-0296/html where all the abstracts of The 10+1 Santorini Conference were published.
Keywords: personalised medicine, big data analytics, chronic diseases, immunology biomarkers, cancer, liquid biopsy, “-OMICS” biomarkers, pharmacogenomics.
Message from The 10+1 Santorini Conference
‘’Whatever you’ve dreamed you can do, start it. Bold has intelligence, power and magic in it.” Goethe
May this magic always follow you on the journey of science and the courage to give you the strength you need so that all your goals can be realised, justifying your efforts!
Open your wings and fly high!
Certainly nothing ended with the 10+1 Santorini Conference, on the contrary inspiring future begun!
See you again at ‘The 20+2 Santorini Conference’, 26-29 May 2026 to continue together the trip!
The journey ahead is promising, with the potential to transform patient care and therapeutic outcomes!
And keep always Ithaka in your mind!
As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you’re seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you’re destined for.
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you’re old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn’t have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
Constantin Cavafy (1863-1933)