Professor Dennis LO Won the 2022 Lasker Award

Professor Yuk Ming Dennis LO, Founding Member of The Hong Kong Academy of Sciences (ASHK), Associate Dean (Research) and Chairman of the Department of Chemical Pathology in the Faculty of Medicine from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) received the 2022 Lasker Award Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award.

The Lasker Awards, created more than 75 years ago, are widely regarded as America’s top biomedical research prize. The Award was presented to Professor Lo in recognition of the significant impact on his revolutionary contribution to medical science by discovering cell-free fetal DNA in maternal blood and developed non-invasive prenatal testing for Down syndrome, laying an important cornerstone for the development of molecular diagnostics.

“I am very honoured to receive this prestigious award and would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to the Lasker Foundation. I am most grateful to all my mentors who have given me enlightenment, inspiration, guidance and opportunities along the way. With the support of my devoted team who have been working closely with me in the past 25 years, we successfully made prenatal investigation safer and more accurate through the development of non-invasive prenatal testing. This clinical breakthrough has helped millions of pregnant women around the world.” Professor Lo said.

Professor Lo added, “The privilege of being a scientist is that you are given an opportunity for transforming abstract ideas into reality, and exploring like a traveller in areas where no one has ever set foot in. Hong Kong is now devoting unprecedented resources to developing biomedicine. As scientists, we also have access to some of the best resources and technologies in human history, such as the human genome sequence and advanced sequencing technologies. I encourage young people who are interested in biomedicine to seize this golden opportunity, and to make positive changes to the world through scientific research.”

Professor Lo is the fifth Chinese to win the Lasker Award since it was established more than 75 years ago.