Background: Since the discovery of cell-free fetal DNA in maternal blood in 1997, the interplay of basic scientific observations and technological developments have continued to drive new clinical applications in the field. Aims: This commentary discusses a number of examples in this virtuous circle of science, technology and clinical applications. Materials & Methods: Commentary and literature review. Results: One example of technological developments is the detection technologies for detecting circulating DNA, moving from conventional PCR, to real-time PCR, to massively parallel sequencing. One example of basic scientific understanding is the size and fragmentation patterns of circulating DNA.