CW Chu College The Chinese University of Hong Kong eNewsletter

Third High Table Dinner: Non-invasive Prenatal Testing—Translating a Dream to Clinical Impact (Prof Dennis LO)

The third High Table Dinner of the College in the academic year 2017–18 was held on 27 February 2018. Prof Dennis LO, our guest of honour, spoke about how he pioneered non-invasive prenatal diagnosis.

Prof LO is the Director of the Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences, the Li Ka Shing Professor of Medicine and Chairman of the Department of Chemical Pathology of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He is also the Associate Dean (Research) of the Faculty of Medicine of CUHK. In 1997, he and his team discovered the presence of fetal DNA in maternal plasma, which laid the foundation for developing non-invasive prenatal diagnosis. In recognition of his work, Prof Lo has received numerous prestigious awards.

At the dinner, Prof LO shared the story of his journey from a medical student in Oxford, to becoming a clinician-scientist in Hong Kong. During his medical studies, he learnt that the existing test on a fetus' genetic health was invasive and carried a 0.5% risk of miscarriage. He was therefore determined to develop new technologies for a safe and non-invasive method for prenatal testing. Thinking outside of the conventional belief, he found fetal DNA in a pregnant woman's blood cells (for example male DNA in the blood of a pregnant woman carrying a baby who later was determined to be male) but in quantities too low for prenatal testing.

In 1997, Prof LO was back to Hong Kong from the UK and continued with his prenatal testing project. Inspired by reading about the discovery of the existence of tumour DNA in a cancer patient's blood plasma in a journal, and with an eureka moment when cooking instant noodles in boiling water, he and his team were successful in detecting fetal DNA in the boiled plasma of a pregnant mother. They applied the discovery to various prenatal tests including gender prediction tests, blood group tests and tests of genetic diseases like Down Syndrome, with extremely high accuracies. Since non-invasive prenatal testing was made available, millions of people over 90 countries have been benefitted.

At the end of his sharing, Prof LO encouraged our students to overcome obstacles and pursue their own dreams. He thinks that anyone with unconventional thinking, patience and perseverance can impact the world.

Fourth High Table Dinner: The Funny Minority (Mr Vivek MAHBUBANI)

Bursts of laughter filled the Multi-purpose Hall when Mr Vivek MAHBUBANI spoke as the guest of honour during the Fourth and last High Table Dinner of the College in 2017–18 (29 March 2018).

Mr MAHBUBANI is an award-winning bilingual stand-up comedian. In 2007, the year of his first performance, he was crowned Funniest Comedian in Hong Kong at the Hong Kong International Comedy Festival for the Cantonese-language category, and in the following year, he won in the English language category. As an ethnic Indian born and raised in Hong Kong, he manages to turn the experiences induced by his identity into material for performances.

In his sharing called 'The Funny Minority' at the dinner, Mr MAHBUBANI recounted some of his real-life experiences of racial issues in the city. Having an optimistic outlook and a great sense of humour, he tried to find the funny sides of difficulties he encountered in life, and lived his life as a game. Facing possibly racist remarks, he chose not to accuse people of insulting him but to play with them by astonishing them with unexpected responses.

Mr MAHBUBANI pointed out that people may consider his identity a disadvantage, but he thinks the opposite. He believes that our perception depends on our choice, so he chooses to see the world and his experiences from a different angle, treasuring and taking advantage of his identity which makes him stand out more easily than the majority.

Mr MAHBUBANI rounded off his sharing by urging the minority to be who they are instead of forcing themselves reluctantly to fit in with the majority. He believes that to reduce racial misunderstanding we should listen to individual stories of people from other races, and avoid stereotypes leading to false assumptions.

Mr MAHBUBANI's sharing was entertaining while inspiring, bringing food for thought to College students who have been exposed to a multicultural environment on campus. Throughout his sharing, he cracked the audience up with vivid narration of his amusing personal experiences and daily examples that aroused resonance among Hongkongers. His 'stand-up performance' earned him a big round of applause and cheers.