Dennis Lo

Yuk-ming Dennis Lo FRS (born c. 1963) is a Hong Kong scientist. He is a professor of chemical pathology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.[1] He is the director of the Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences.[2] Lo is a fellow of the Royal Society.[2][3]

Dennis Lo
Traditional Chinese盧煜明
Simplified Chinese卢煜明
In this Chinese name, the family name is Lo.

Personal life

Lo was born in Hong Kong. His father was a medical doctor and his mother taught music. In 1983, at the age of 20, he attended Cambridge University and completed a pre-clinical degree before attending Oxford for clinical training.[4] He later finished his PhD at Oxford. Lo has stated that he does not practice a religion but in his heart of hearts would have "to invoke something religious to explain everything right to the beginning."[5]

Career

After learning about a new method to detect small amounts of DNA called polymerase chain reaction from another researcher, Lo read a research paper describing the detection of tumor DNA in blood plasma. Lo wondered if it would be possible to detect fetal DNA in blood from a pregnant mother.[5] In 1989, he published results that suggested fetal DNA did exist but only in low quantities.[5] However, in 1997, Lo was successful in detecting fetal DNA in the plasma of a pregnant mother by using the male chromosome as a marker.[1][5] He called the discovery like "finding your car's engine somewhere other than under the bonnet." This discovery has enabled a safer way for prenatal diagnosis of abnormalities in fetal development.[1] In 2011, he developed a sequencing-based technology to determine the gender of the fetus earlier than an ultrasound.[1][5] Lo was able to adapt this technology to use RNA, instead of DNA, to detect down-syndrome in unborn fetuses where previous methods could cause a miscarriage.[6]

Awards
  • 2005 - State Natural Science Award from the State Council of China[7]
  • 2006 - International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine[7]
  • 2006 - Abbott Award for Outstanding Contribution to Molecular Dianosticas[7]
  • 2006 - US National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry Distinguished Scientist Award[7]
  • 2009 - Sigi Zeiring Award from the American Association of Clinical Chemistry[7]
  • 2011 - Fellow of the Royal Society[7]
  • 2013 - Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences[7]
  • 2014 - King Faisal Award
  • 2016 - Future Science Prize[8]
  • 2016 - Thomson Reuters Citation Laureate (in recognition of the high number of citations that rank Lo in the top 0.1% of his field world wide)
  • 2021 - Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences[9]

References
  1. "Yuk-Ming Dennis lo, MD: AACC-NACB Award for Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Chemistry in a Selected Area of Research". American Association for Clinical Chemistry. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
  2. "Professor Yuk Ming Dennis Lo FRS". The Royal Society.
  3. "Encounters with Alumni from Greater China". Oxford University. August 2011. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
  4. Misia Landau (April 2012). "Inspiring Minds: Yuk-Ming Dennis Lo". Clinical Chemistry. 56 (4): 784–786. doi:10.1373/clinchem.2011.179069. PMID 22461516. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
  5. ZoÎ Corbyn (31 August 2013). "Dennis Lo: 'Should parents be told about a disease their child might get?'". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
  6. Andrew Pollack (October 6, 2008). "Blood Tests Ease Search for Down Syndrome". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 September 2013.
  7. "Academic Profiles: Dennis Lo, Professor". The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
  8. Siu, Phila (2016-09-20). "Hong Kong professor bags first-ever Chinese version of Nobel Prize". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 2019-09-13.
  9. 2021 Breakthrough Prizes in Life Sciences
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