InnoStars Awards recognise 9 for innovative inventions and work, including Hong Kong scientist who developed Covid-19 test in 3 weeks
- Ricky Chiu Yin-to was among the first to come up with affordable and accurate test kits for the coronavirus
- Optometry professor To Chi-ho and health minister Lo Chung-Mau also received awards for their work
Nucleic acid testing for Covid-19 has become second nature in Hong Kong, and scientist Ricky Chiu Yin-to plays a big part in that, having been among the first to look into coming up with affordable and accurate testing tools for the public just three weeks after the coronavirus outbreak began in 2020.
His swift action and dedication earned him recognition on Friday when he became one of nine winners of the InnoStars Award, an accolade presented by think tank Our Hong Kong Foundation and founded by former city leader Tung Chee-hwa to innovative scientists in the city.
Born to and raised in a family filled with literature and history scholars, Chiu chose a markedly different path for himself from a young age, and had always aspired to become a scientist.
After completing Form Five in a local secondary school, Chiu travelled to the United States in pursuit of this dream. He chose to study biomedical engineering, went on to earn a doctoral degree, and soon realised his unique passion for developing rapid tests.
“The first funding my team and I got was to develop a rapid test for detecting tooth decay,” he recalled. “It’s caused by one specific bacteria in the oral cavity and many parents don’t know that children can get it just through being fed food by adults.”
In 2015, he founded biotech company Phase Scientific and returned to Hong Kong in 2017 to focus on the development of diagnostic tools for cancer.
