Life Sciences and Medical Breakthroughs: The Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences, NIPT, and the Front Lines of Epidemic Response

A discovery that began in a single CUHK laboratory eventually rewrote obstetric protocols in dozens of countries around the world. A research institute built inside a teaching hospital turned this sort of "bench-to-bedside" translation into an institutional habit. This article takes the Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences (LiHS) as its axis, weaving together several of the CUHK Faculty of Medicine’s globally most influential storylines: non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT), cancer liquid biopsy, digestive diseases, and the two epidemic battles—SARS and COVID-19. This is a factual reference archive (04 Research); no credibility badges are applied, and every claim is supported by an academic or official source.

The principal inventor of NIPT, Professor Dennis Lo Yuk-ming (盧煜明) (CUHK Chair Professor of Chemical Pathology), now concurrently serves as the ninth Vice-Chancellor and President of CUHK. This article records his neutral, positive achievements as an award-winning scientist (for the university governance context, see the Overview section on the Vice-Chancellor succession). Hereafter, "Professor Lo" refers to Dennis Lo. All proper names of teams, institutions, and awards are recorded as given by the sources.

---

# 1. How the Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences Was Founded

The Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences (LiHS) of The Chinese University of Hong Kong is the Faculty of Medicine’s flagship translational biomedical platform. According to a CUHK Communications and Public Relations Office announcement^※, the Li Ka Shing Foundation donated HK$100 million to the CUHK Faculty of Medicine in 2005, earmarked to establish a flagship institute with a core mission of translational medicine at the Prince of Wales Hospital. Two years later, the institute was formally inaugurated—on 7 September 2007, Mr. Li Ka-shing personally presided over the opening ceremony, attended by then Vice-Chancellor and President of CUHK Professor Lawrence J. Lau, Hospital Authority Chairman Mr. Anthony Wu, and others.

On the same day, the Li Ka Shing Foundation allocated an additional HK$20 million to establish a second "Li Ka Shing Professorship", with Professor Chan Hsiao-chang of the Department of Physiology appointed as its first holder. According to the same announcement, in his opening address Mr. Li Ka-shing stressed that medical research must "balance intuition and empathy, to bring courage and connection in moments of vulnerability." The founding philosophy of the institute was precisely to translate such humanistic care into a systematic research infrastructure.

---

# 2. The Institute’s Physical Form and Core Directions

The main building of LiHS is the Li Ka Shing Medical Sciences Building. According to CUHK Faculty of Medicine Facilities page^※, this building has 11 floors and a total floor area of over 14,000 square metres, situated on the campus of the Prince of Wales Hospital. The Prince of Wales Hospital is one of Hong Kong's largest teaching hospitals, and its enormous clinical caseload provides a uniquely favourable "bedside" interface for the institute's translational medicine direction—fundamental scientific discoveries can rapidly enter clinical validation within the same campus. The building houses a Biomedical Computing Centre, a Molecular Biology Core Facility, a Cell Biology Core Facility, as well as an independent Laboratory Animal Core Facility and Translational Omics Platform.

According to the official LiHS page^※ and the CUHK Faculty of Medicine Research Institutes page^※, the institute currently hosts over 60 principal investigators and more than 450 researchers^※ (from both clinical and non-clinical backgrounds), with work spanning two major areas and a total of 14 research themes:

Among these, the two themes of "Asian cancers" and "molecular diagnostics" constitute the core pillars of LiHS’s global reputation and have been the focus of top-tier award recognition over the years; the "genomics and bioinformatics" segment provides the computational and data-analysis backbone for the entire institute.

---

# 3. The Scientific Journey of NIPT: From "Searching in Plasma" to a Global Clinical Standard

Non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) is the primary source of LiHS’s international renown and one of the most globally influential achievements in CUHK’s research history. The CUHK Chemical Pathology team’s answer to the question of whether a baby’s genetic information could be read simply from a blood draw spans over two decades and can be divided into four stages: discovery, validation, clinical rollout, and formal recognition.

# Discovery (1997): Maternal plasma harbours fetal DNA

According to the Lasker Foundation’s award description^※ and CUHK Faculty of Medicine’s Flagship Research page^※, in 1997 the CUHK team discovered that cell-free fetal DNA (cffDNA) exists in the blood plasma of pregnant women—the liquid component of blood after cells are removed. The disruptive nature of this discovery lay in this: previously, researchers had been searching for fetal material within the mother’s blood cells (extremely rare and difficult to isolate), whereas this team shifted its focus to plasma, a long-overlooked fraction—and found a significant amount of cell-free fetal DNA there.

A conceptual pivot: The starting point of NIPT was not a new machine, but a shift in thinking—from "searching inside cells" to "searching in plasma." This pivot moved the idea of "reading a fetus's genes non-invasively" from a fantasy to the threshold of feasibility.

# Validation (approx. 1997–2008): From "DNA exists" to "diagnosis possible"

Between discovering the existence of fetal DNA and making a reliable diagnosis from it lies a lengthy technical validation process. According to the Lasker Foundation description^※ and a related academic paper (PMC)^※: fetal DNA constitutes only a very small proportion of maternal plasma, the vast majority being the mother’s own DNA. Around 2002, the team further clarified the differences between maternal and fetal DNA, making it possible to identify fetal DNA in maternal blood. Over the following decade, the team ultimately established "massively parallel sequencing" (MPS, i.e., next-generation high-throughput sequencing) as the key technological pathway, which allowed the vast number of DNA fragments in maternal blood to be individually counted and compared, thereby statistically inferring whether the fetus carries a specific chromosomal abnormality (such as an excess of chromosome 21, i.e., Down syndrome).

# Clinical rollout (2010s): Becoming a global clinical standard

According to the Lasker Foundation description^※ and the CUHK Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology NIPT service page^※, non-invasive screening for Down syndrome based on cell-free DNA analysis is now in clinical use in over 90 countries and territories. According to the CUHK Faculty of Medicine 2021 Breakthrough Prize announcement^※, it is performed over 7 million times per year. Its adoption has had a global clinical consequence: the number of invasive prenatal diagnostic procedures has dropped markedly, allowing large numbers of pregnant women to avoid risk-bearing tests such as amniocentesis. After LiHS was established, it became the institutional vehicle that propelled this achievement into clinical translation—from the early development of the methodology, to the establishment of the massively parallel sequencing pathway, to collaborative validation with the clinical team at the Prince of Wales Hospital, all took place within the building.

# Recognition (2022): The Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award

According to the Lasker Foundation^※, the 2022 Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award was presented for the invention of this non-invasive prenatal testing, honouring the achievement of "discovering fetal DNA in maternal blood and developing a non-invasive prenatal test for Down syndrome based on this discovery." The Lasker Award is often regarded as a "bellwether" for the Nobel Prize, and this recognition firmly established NIPT as a milestone in the history of contemporary clinical medicine.

「我衷心感謝評審委員會對我們團隊努力的認可。沒有我的團隊，這一切不可能實現。」("I sincerely thank the judging panel for recognising my team's efforts. None of this would have been possible without my team.") — Professor Lo, 2021 Breakthrough Prize acceptance speech^※

---

# 4. From Prenatal to Cancer Prevention: Early Cancer Detection

The underlying logic of NIPT—capturing cell-free nucleic acids from plasma to make a non-invasive assessment—can equally be applied to early cancer screening. Tumours also release circulating DNA carrying mutation signatures into the bloodstream. The LiHS team has accumulated several milestone achievements in this direction.

Plasma EBV DNA screening for nasopharyngeal carcinoma: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) has a markedly high incidence in South China and Southeast Asia, but traditionally is often discovered only at advanced stages. According to a CUHK Faculty of Medicine announcement^※ (published in NEJM Evidence, 2023; earlier results see New England Journal of Medicine 2017^※), the team conducted plasma Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) DNA screening on over 20,000 middle-aged men (2013–2016), and performed a second round of screening on over 17,000 of them 3–5 years later. The results showed that among NPC cases detected through screening, approximately 70% were at Stage I or II; in the unscreened population, diagnosis was mostly at Stage III or IV, with the early-stage proportion being only roughly 20%. Those who tested positive in both rounds had a risk of developing NPC as high as 17 times that of those who tested negative.

Multi-cancer early detection (MCED): In 2022, the team published fragmentomics technology, enabling simultaneous screening for multiple types of cancer by analysing fragmentation patterns of plasma DNA. Leveraging this technology, Professor Lo and Prenetics jointly founded the venture Insighta in June 2023^※, with financing reaching US$200 million—according to the announcement, one of the largest private life sciences transactions in Hong Kong’s history. Insighta plans to launch the Presight product targeting lung and liver cancer in 2025, and to expand to Presight One, covering more than 10 cancer types, by 2027. The technology originates from the Centre for Novostics under the InnoHK initiative.

---

# 5. Digestive Diseases: From Helicobacter pylori to the Gut Microbiome

Digestive diseases are a traditional strength of the CUHK Faculty of Medicine and the core focus of its State Key Laboratory of Digestive Disease.

Joseph Sung: Helicobacter pylori and endoscopic haemostasis. Joseph J. Y. Sung is a gastroenterologist. According to CUHK Faculty of Medicine^※, his team pioneeringly demonstrated that a one-week course of antibiotics could eradicate Helicobacter pylori infection, cure peptic ulcers, and reduce recurrence; the team also pioneered the use of endoscopic therapy instead of surgery to treat ulcer bleeding, reducing the need for open abdominal operations. This body of work transformed the treatment paradigm for peptic ulcer disease.

Yu Jun: Gut microbiome and colorectal cancer. According to CUHK Research information^※, the team led by Professor Yu Jun investigates the role of gut microbiota dysbiosis at various stages of the development and progression of colorectal cancer, providing new microbiome-based clues for diagnosis and treatment. Yu Jun holds appointments at the Institute of Digestive Disease and the State Key Laboratory of Digestive Disease.

---

# 6. Two Epidemic Battles: SARS and COVID-19

2003 SARS. According to a paper published in The Lancet (2003)^※, the Prince of Wales Hospital documented the frontline experience of the Hong Kong SARS outbreak: by 25 March, 156 SARS patients had been admitted, almost all traceable to a single index case. Professor Joseph Sung, then Chairman of the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, personally led the clinical team on the front line. According to a Lancet tenth-anniversary interview (PMC)^※, within roughly two weeks of the outbreak there had already been 138 new infections within the hospital.

COVID-19. According to a CUHK announcement^※, the team discovered that COVID-19 patients, even without gastrointestinal symptoms, could still harbour an active and persistent viral infection in their intestines. Based on this, they developed a stool virus test—more convenient and non-invasive for infants and young children who struggle to cooperate with nasopharyngeal swabs—and established a testing centre for the paediatric population to identify asymptomatic "silent carriers."

---

# 7. State Key Laboratories, Awards, and Academicians

# State Key Laboratories overseen by the institute

According to the CUHK Faculty of Medicine Research Institutes page^※, LiHS coordinates two State Key Laboratories:

At the level of the Hong Kong SAR Government’s InnoHK platform, LiHS’s core directions have also incubated the Centre for Novostics. This centre, led by CUHK and now based in the Science Park, focuses on novel molecular diagnostics based on cell-free nucleic acids in blood. According to the Centre for Novostics website^※, its Scientific Director is precisely the Director of LiHS (Chair Professor of Chemical Pathology), forming a complete chain from fundamental research (LiHS/State Key Labs) to applied translation (InnoHK). For the full list and framework of State Key Laboratories, see State Key Laboratories.

# Top-tier award recognition

Furthermore, according to the CUHK Faculty of Medicine 2021 Breakthrough Prize announcement^※, the institute’s team was listed among Nature Biotechnology's "Top 20 Translational Researchers" for a consecutive four years, making it one of the Asian teams with the longest continuous presence on that list.

# Academicians and national-level honours

Several CUHK scholars have been elected as academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences or the Chinese Academy of Engineering, as well as international academies. For instance, according to a CUHK announcement^※, Joseph Sung was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the only scientist in Hong Kong to receive that honour that year; the CUHK inventor of NIPT (Chair Professor of Chemical Pathology) has received honours including Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS). The full list of Academicians and International Fellows is as officially announced at the latest update.

---

# 8. Multiple Rounds of Donations from the Li Ka Shing Foundation

The establishment and expansion of LiHS could not have happened without the continued financial commitment of the Li Ka Shing Foundation. The following are the major publicly disclosed donation milestones:

According to the 2021 announcement^※, the 2021 donation of HK$30 million was specifically used to expand laboratory bench space (adding 14 new bench runs with 84 working stations) and to increase the capacity of the mouse facility to three times its original size, expected to be completed by the end of 2022. According to the 2022 donation announcement^※, the Li Ka Shing Foundation’s cumulative donations to CUHK medical research have exceeded HK$400 million (as measured before 2022); the 2022 HK$150 million, combined with CUHK’s own funds and in-kind contributions, formed a total HK$300 million "Passion for Perfection" (P for P) programme, specifically driving the "bench-to-bedside" translational push of laboratory discoveries into clinical application.

---

# 9. LiHS’s Place on the CUHK Research Map

The Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences is not a standalone island but one of the axial structures in the research ecosystem of the CUHK Faculty of Medicine: it coordinates two State Key Laboratories (Digestive Disease, and Translational Oncology), incubates InnoHK centres upwards (Centre for Novostics), and connects downwards to the research activities of the Faculty’s clinical departments; its building houses over 450 researchers spanning multiple disciplines including medicine, surgery, pathology, and microbiology.

From a broader narrative perspective, the two highest accolades the CUHK Faculty of Medicine has received in global translational medicine—the Lasker Award and the Breakthrough Prize—are both directly linked to LiHS. And the institute’s geographical adjacency to the Prince of Wales Hospital gives it a quality that purely basic-research institutions lack: the institutional convenience of accessing clinical data and performing translational validation. This was precisely the logic behind the choice of site that was emphasised during the 2007 opening ceremony—"so that researchers can shuttle between the laboratory and the bedside with zero friction."

This archive juxtaposes the two towering peaks of CUHK’s research: one is the optical fibre leading to a Nobel Prize in Physics, the other is the NIPT leading to a Lasker Award (see Overview of Research Achievements). The two share a thought-provoking commonality: both originated from a "conceptual pivot" rather than fortunate accident—optical fibre from the insight that "glass of sufficient purity can transmit light over long distances," NIPT from the insight that "fetal DNA is hidden in plasma, not in cells."

Related reading: Overview of Research Achievements, State Key Laboratories, Healthcare and Multi-scale Robotics, Research Output and Spin-off Companies.

---