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Professor Dennis Lo Yuk-ming, Vice-Chancellor and President of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), recently received the 22nd AACR-Irving Weinstein Foundation Distinguished Lectureship presented by The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). He is the first Hong Kong scientist and the second Chinese scholar to receive this prestigious honour.

The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is one of the world’s largest and oldest cancer research organisations. Established in 2005, the lectureship recognises scientists who demonstrate outstanding innovation in science and make pioneering contributions to cancer research. Among past awardees, many have received international accolades, including six Nobel laureates.

Professor Lo said: “I am deeply honoured to receive this recognition and sincerely thank AACR for acknowledging my research. Over the years, my team and I have been dedicated to advancing liquid biopsy technologies, particularly applying DNA sequencing to cancer detection, with the goal of identifying cancers earlier and more accurately through non-invasive methods. Looking ahead, I believe that continuous innovation will drive cancer diagnostics and other medical technologies to new milestones, transforming scientific discoveries into clinical applications and ultimately contributing to the well-being of humanity.”

Professor Lo is globally renowned as a pioneer, innovator, and leader in liquid biopsy, and is known as the “father of non-invasive prenatal testing”. He joined CUHK in 1997, the same year he reported the presence of cell-free fetal DNA in maternal plasma, laying the important foundation for non-invasive DNA-based prenatal testing. He and his colleagues have been instrumental in making non-invasive DNA-based prenatal testing a clinical reality. The non-invasive prenatal test (NIPT) they developed for Down syndrome is regarded as a significant breakthrough by the global scientific community. It has now been adopted in more than 100 countries and used by over 100 million pregnant women worldwide. Furthermore, Professor Lo has developed genome-wide genetic and epigenetic approaches that facilitate the early detection of multiple types of cancer, propelling cancer liquid biopsy into the era of genome-wide analysis. He and his team have successfully developed technologies that allow for their detection and clinical applications. In recognition of his work, Professor Lo has received numerous international honours and awards, including being the first Chinese scientist to receive the Royal Medal in biological sciences from the Royal Society of London, the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, the inaugural Tengchong Science Award and becoming the first Chinese scholar to receive the prestigious Jiménez Díaz Lecture Award.