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Biomedicine: Science
ChinaScience

Dennis Lo bets on blood to bare all, with tests that saved 10 million mums from the needle

Lo’s blood tests can potentially reveal more information about patients’ health, from cancers to neurodegenerative conditions to age-related diseases

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Holly ChikandXinmei Shen
In the first instalment of a series to mark the 10th anniversary of the Future Science Prize, Holly Chik and Shen Xinmei look at Professor Dennis Lo’s groundbreaking discovery of fetal DNA in maternal plasma, which earned him the inaugural award in the Life Sciences category in 2016. Click here for part two and three.

The blood tests of the future can reveal a lot more about a person’s health, from neurodegenerative conditions to age-related diseases, said the Hong Kong clinical pathologist whose pioneering work in 1995 spared 10 million expecting mothers worldwide from the amniocentesis needle.

“In neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, I [can] use circular nucleic acids to diagnose those conditions”, said Professor Dennis Lo Yuk-ming during an interview last month with the Post. “Ageing changes the formatting of DNA, so [one] can use epigenetics as a clock of the DNA.”

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The comment by Lo, the day before he took over as the president of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), underscores his progress in pathology, since he found DNA fragments – inspired by a stewing pot of instant noodles, he said – in the blood plasma of pregnant women. The discovery led to the creation of a blood test that could examine fetal DNA (T21) for Down syndrome and other genetic diseases, instead of using needles to extract amniotic fluid from expecting mothers.
Professor Dennis Lo Yuk-Ming in his laboratory at the Centre for Novstics at the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park on 21 June 2023. Photo: Yik Yeung-man
Professor Dennis Lo Yuk-Ming in his laboratory at the Centre for Novstics at the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park on 21 June 2023. Photo: Yik Yeung-man

The T21 test, available for between HK$4,500 (US$578) and HK$8,000 at various hospitals and clinics in Hong Kong, has been rolled out to women in 90 countries since 2011.

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