“Innovating Health” Webinar – Prof Dennis Lo
Fragmentation of Cell-free DNA in Plasma as a Source of New Biomarkers for Prenatal Testing and Cancer Screening
3 pm – 4 pm, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 (Singapore/Hong Kong)
Prof Dennis Lo
Li Ka Shing Professor of Medicine and
Director, Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences
, Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Recently, there has been much interest in using cell-free DNA (cfDNA) in plasma for non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) and cancer liquid biopsies. My research team first reported the presence of cell-free fetal DNA in maternal plasma in 1997. Since then, we have translated this discovery into a platform for non-invasive prenatal tests for chromosomal abnormalities and single-gene disorders. Circulating cfDNA consists of short DNA fragments. The process that leads to this fragmentation is unclear. Our recent study has identified a new class of molecular markers associated with the fragmentation process, called the fragmentomic markers. This talk will illustrate some pregnancy and cancer scenarios that use plasma DNA fragmentomics to provide a new generation of molecular markers for clinical applications.
Biography
Dennis Lo is the Li Ka Shing Professor of Medicine and Director of the Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He received his BA (Hons) from the University of Cambridge and his Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from the University of Oxford. He discovered the presence of cell-free fetal DNA in maternal plasma in 1997. He has since translated this finding into a platform for noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT). He has also made concurrent discoveries and inventions in the liquid biopsies of cancer. In recognition of his work, he has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (UK), Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences and a founding member of the Hong Kong Academy of Sciences. He is a recipient of the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2021).
Register the webinar here https://nus-sg.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_meqnBFExQBeVL70aSAgHCg
Download the poster here [pdf]
