Pioneering HK doctor honored for prenatal care
Print Edition
Hong Kong biomedical scientist Lo Yuk-ming, pioneer of non-invasive prenatal testing, was honored with the Fudan-Zhongzhi Science Award yesterday in Shanghai.
Also known as Dennis Lo, he is professor of Chemical Pathology of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and founding member of the Hong Kong Academy of Sciences.
His discoveries changed the conventional wisdom that fetal DNA only existed inside the cells of the fetus, and led to the breakthrough invention of non-invasive prenatal test, which has benefited tens of millions of women.
NIPT offers a safer approach than traditional invasive detection used for decades, such as the painful and risky amniocentesis that inserts a needle into a pregnant woman’s womb and may cause miscarriage. Instead, NIPT only requires blood sample from woman.
It means that blood tests can tell mothers-to-be not only their unborn babies’ gender and blood types, but also whether they carry genetic abnormalities, such as Down syndrome, Edwards syndrome and Patau syndrome. It has been found to be 99.7 percent accurate in detecting Down’s.
Currently, he is focusing on detecting circulating tumor DNA, making possible cancer diagnosis in pre-symptomatic patients and laying the foundation for an entire new generation of research on liquid biopsy.
Lo was one of the two first winners of the Future Science Awards in 2016.
In the same year, he was named the former Thomson Reuters Citation Laureate, now Clarivate Citation Laureates, which candidates are widely considered to likely to win the Nobel Prize in their respective field. However, he just missed out.
Yesterday, he was presented with the 3 million yuan (US$430,000) award.
“The award is presented for his remarkable contributions to NIPT benefiting the health of mothers and newborns, for his fundamental research on cell-free DNA molecules, and for his leadership in the development of new diagnostic testing methods to detect circulating tumor DNA, allowing cancer diagnosis in pre-symptomatic patients,” according to the citation for the award.
As one of the world’s most distinguished clinical molecular biologists, Lo has impacted clinical applications worldwide, said Samuel Ting, a Nobel laureate in physics and chairman of the prize committee.
“I haven’t got a plan about how to use the money. For me, it’s more like a support and recognition,” Lo told Shanghai Daily.
Now, annually, about 5 million mothers on Chinese mainland benefit from NIPT, and Lo hopes to cover more mothers and babies. As the entry point, he sees China’s Greater Bay Area as the best bet.
The area, formed by Guangdong Province, Hong Kong and Macau, is aiming to be an international innovation hub.
Lo has taken the chance. He built joint labs and established companies in the area, hoping to introduce first-hand high-quality technology to Chinese mainland.
“The key of the technology is about the concentration of the DNA in the blood. It requires quality control,” he said. “Another problem is about the price. Many genetic disorders can be screened out, but the high price just stops many mothers-to-be, and we are working to find a way to lower the price.”
During his stay in Shanghai, he said he plans to visit maternal hospitals to seek cooperation. “I believe Shanghai has a huge potential market,” he said.
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