Dr Dennis Lo has won some of science’s highest honours. In just the past three years, he has been granted The Breakthrough Prize, the Royal Medal and the Lasker-DeBakey award—an honour often seen as a precursor to winning a Nobel prize. There is a good reason for this: Lo is the inventor of a genetic testing technology that has revolutionised prenatal care for millions of women around the world. It has also been found to have promising applications in the detection of cancer.
If that wasn’t enough, he’s also a delightful storyteller. As he shares highlights from a remarkable career, he can recall the smallest of details: The name of a biology textbook from childhood. The knot in his stomach, over 30 years ago, as he waited to meet with famed Oxford physician Sir David Weatherall: “You knew he was in that office just by the way the pipe smoke crept through the slit in the door,” Lo says.
Lo’s narrative abilities may come from his natural gift for treasuring what the rest of us miss. In 1989, he became one of
