卢煜明：很荣幸能够成为未来科学大奖 - 生命科学奖的首位获奖者。中国有那么多杰出的科学家，评审委员会决定授予我这项荣誉，这真是一个惊喜，也是一个令人难忘的经历。

我仍然记得，当我还是医学院高年级学生时，读了一篇由加利福尼亚大学简悦威教授写的文章 On a Slow Boat from China，概述了他的发现之旅。这激发了我对分子研究的兴趣，尤其是产前检查领域。很幸运，在之后的职业生涯中，有很多机会可以与简教授交流，这对我是十分宝 贵的经验。

我从事生物医学研究的生涯约始于 28 年前，那时我还是一个年轻的学生，对无创产前检查研究产生了兴趣，完全不知道这个项目将要持续二十多年的时间。一切都始于一个非常天真的想法:或许我能为这个领域带来一些新的东西。

我很幸运，有很多乐于助人的、善良的导师，像 Dr. Kenneth Fleming(弗莱明博士)，非常高兴今天他也在颁奖典礼现场，即使在我返回(中国)香港后，弗莱明博士仍愿意继续为我提供建议和指导，还要感谢 Sir John Bell(贝尔爵士)和 James Wainscoat(怀恩斯寇特教授)。

从细胞内部 DNA 的研究转为对血浆中细胞外 DNA 的研究，是我科研生涯中一个关键的转变。我非常感谢 Philippe Anker(安卡博士)和 Maurice Stroun(史创博士)在血浆中 ctDNA 方面所做的工作，是他们的研究启发了我从事这项新工作。

科学研究中，团队协作精神非常重要，如果没有一支在过去 20 年里一直尽心尽力的团队支持我，我不可能站在这里。特别要感谢我的两个同事和朋友——Rossa Chiu(赵慧君教授)、Allen Chan( 陈君赐教授 )。 借这个机会，我想向他们的家人道歉，因为我时常半夜给他们打电话谈 论我的新想法。这些年来，他们一直陪伴着我。我也非常感谢 Professor Joseph Sung( 沈祖尧校长 ) 和 Professor Francis Chan( 陈家亮院长 ) 这些年来对我们工作的支持。

非常幸运，在世界各地我有许多杰出的合作者。特别要感谢 Charles Cantor( 查尔斯 · 坎特博士 )，我们之间有许多次激动人心的讨论，大家集思广益，他始终对我们的梦想充满信心，最终我们于 2011 年正式推 出了非侵入性产前检查。

还要感谢来自阿姆斯特丹的 Cees Oudejans(奥迪仁教授)，我们在 开发胎儿表观遗传标记方面合作，感谢他以及他已故妻子 Ineta(艾妮达)。另外，还要感谢周代星博士，在使用新一代测序技术早期所给予 的支持。

我也很感激今天在听众席的 Dr. KF Wong(黄杰辉博士)，他说服香港特别行政区政府和香港医院管理局推广我们的技术。同时，我还要感谢 Dr.Min Cui(崔相民博士)和 Tony Yung(翁锦辉先生)提供的帮助，将这项技术推向临床。

很幸运，我可以在有 140 年历史的香港圣若瑟书院就读。圣若瑟书院是一所非常开放的学校，它自由的学术精神驱使我渴望探索未知领域。很高兴我的很多老同学今天都在听众席，Johnson Chan(陈俊 生)和他的妻子 Angel Wong( 黄明达 ), Cranston Chan(陈建能)和他的 妻子 Sharon Wong(黄颖怡), 以及我的好朋友 James、Winnie Cheung、 Maurice 和 Daisy Cheng。

平时研究任务非常艰巨，经常需要耗费很多时间。

因此，非常感谢我的妻子 Alice(黄小玲)，今天她也在听众席中， 感谢她的理解。

我也非常感谢我妻子的家人——我的岳父母和她的兄弟，愿意接纳我成为家庭的一员。还要感谢观众席中的 Cedric Yiu(姚嘉晖)，最初在牛津大学将我介绍给小玲。

最后，我非常感谢我的父母和弟弟 Eric(卢彦明)对我从事“医生 - 科学家”这种比较特别的职业的支持。不幸的是，父亲在 8 月中旬患中 风，曾经有一段时间他的健康状况一度好转，让我得以告诉他我获得了 未来科学大奖的好消息。不过很遗憾，他在 11 月去世了。我相信他会很高兴我今天能够在各位尊敬的嘉宾面前向他致敬。

谢谢。

Yuk-Ming Dennis Lo: It’s my great honour to be selected as the inaugural winner of the Future Science Prize in Life Science. There are so many outstanding scientists in China. That is truly a humbling experience, truly a surprise when the selection committee has decided to bestow on me this rare honour.

I still remember when I was a junior medical student in medical school, I have read an article which was written by Professor Yuet Wai Kan from the University of California, San Francisco which was titled “On a Slow Boat from China”. And in that particular article, Professor Kan outlined his journey of discovery. And that really interested me into molecular research, especially in the area of prenatal testing. And I was very fortunate that in my subsequent career, I had many valuable opportunities to actually interact personally with Professor Kan.

My journey with first hand biomedical research probably started some 28 years ago, when I became interested in non-invasive prenatal testing. Of course at that time as a young student, I had absolutely no idea that the project was going to take me over two decades. It all started with a very naive thought that maybe I have something new to bring to the field.

And I was very fortunate that I have many very helpful and kind mentors, like Dr. Kenneth Fleming, who is here in the audience, Sir John Bell and Jim Wainscoat. Dr. Fleming in particular has continued to advise me and mentor me even after I had returned back to Hong Kong. I’m very pleased to actually see him in the audience today.

One key moment in my scientific career was my transition from working on DNA inside cell to working on cell-free DNA in plasma. Perhaps, it was a change of environment that happened when I moved from the UK back to Hong Kong that actually triggered my desire to take a risk. For this very important step, I’m very grateful to Philippe Anker and Maurice Stroun for their work on cell-free cancer DNA in plasma, which inspired me into this new work.

Now science is a group effort, I could not have been standing here without a very, very devoted team which has worked with me for the last two decades. In particular, Rossa Chiu and Allen Chan are two of my comrades and friends. And actually I wish to apologize to their families because I frequently ring them even around midnight to talk about new ideas. But they have borne with me over the years. I am also very grateful to Professor Joseph Sung and Professor Francis Chan, for supporting our work for these many years.

I am also very blessed by having many great collaborators all around the world. In particular, I’d like to thank Charles Cantor for many exciting brainstorming meetings that we had heated discussion and his faith in our dream and eventually launching non-invasive prenatal testing in 2011.

I’d also like to thank Cees Oudejans from Amsterdam for his collaboration to develop fetal epigenetic markers and for his and for his late wife Ineta’s friendships. Also I’d like to thank Zhou Daixing for his collaboration in the early days of using next-generation sequencing.

I am also grateful to Dr. KF Wong in the audience today for persuading the government and the health authority to plan the launch of our technology in the public sector. And I’d also like to thank Dr. Min Cui and Tony Yung, for helping to push the technology into the clinic.

Also I’m very lucky to have gone to Saint Joseph’s College, which is 140 years old in Hong Kong. Saint Joseph’s is a very liberal school, and this free spirit has actually given me the desire to adventure into the unknown. So I’m very glad, actually many of my old classmates are here, Johnson Chan, Cranston Chan, their wives Angel Wong, Sharon Wong and also my good friends James and Winnie Cheung, Maurice and Daisy Cheng are in the audience today.

Now research can be very intense undertaking, and actually frequently takes up a lot of my time. So I’m very grateful to my wife Alice who is in the audience today for her understanding.

I’m also very grateful to my wife’s family for welcoming me into the family, my parents-in-law and Alice’s brother. I would also like to thank Cedric Yiu who is in the audience for initially introducing myself to Alice in Oxford.

And finally I’m very grateful to my parents and my brother Eric for the support on me to pursue an unconventional career as a clinician scientist. My father unfortunately had a stroke in mid-August, but he recovered enough at that time for me to tell him the good news about the Future Science Prize. But unfortunately, he passed away in November. I trust that he’s pleased that I’m able to honour him today in front of this distinguished audience.

Thank you.