# David Ge

> David Dongliang Ge is the founder and CEO of Apostle Inc, a Pleasanton biotechnology company developing magnetic-particle chemistry, extraction kits and automated systems for isolating cell-free DNA and RNA. His career has moved from academic statistical genetics at Duke, through leading bioinformatics at Gilead Sciences, to building a company around the often-overlooked sample-preparation step that determines what genomic assays can actually detect.

- **Role:** Founder and CEO at Apostle Inc
- **Organizations:** Apostle Inc, BioSciKin Co., Ltd., Simcere Diagnostics Co., Gilead Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences
- **Education:** PhD in Biostatistics and Genetic Epidemiology, Peking Union Medical College and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Postdoctoral training, Duke University, Bachelor of Medicine, Fudan University
- **Known for:** Co-authored the 2009 Nature paper 'Genetic variation in IL28B predicts hepatitis C treatment-induced viral clearance.', Developed Sequence Variant Analyzer at Duke to organize and annotate variants from whole-genome sequencing studies., Founded and led the bioinformatics group at Gilead Sciences from 2011 to 2016.

## Career timeline

- **2004** — Received a PhD in Biostatistics and Genetic Epidemiology from Peking Union Medical College and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.
- **2006-2008** — Completed postdoctoral training at Duke University.
- **2008-2011** — Served as Assistant Professor of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics and Assistant Professor in Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine.
- **2009** — Co-authored the Nature paper identifying IL28B genetic variation associated with response to hepatitis C treatment.
- **2011-2016** — Was Director and Head of Bioinformatics at Gilead Sciences, where he founded the bioinformatics group and led phylogenomic analytical support connected to the regulatory approval of Sovaldi.
- **2014-2015** — Served on U.S. National Human Genome Research Institute Special Emphasis Panels.
- **2016-2017** — Led BioSciKin and Simcere Diagnostics in a president role focused on diagnostic technologies and biomedical incubation.
- **2017-present** — Founded and leads Apostle Inc, developing nucleic-acid isolation, enrichment and automation technologies.
- **2018** — Apostle was selected for Stanford StartX and included in BioSpace's list of life-science startups to watch.
- **2019** — Apostle entered a liquid-biopsy partnership with Beckman Coulter Life Sciences and completed a Series A financing led by ShangBay Capital.
- **2023** — Apostle acquired a headquarters building in Pleasanton, California.

## Achievements

- Co-authored the 2009 Nature paper 'Genetic variation in IL28B predicts hepatitis C treatment-induced viral clearance.'
- Developed Sequence Variant Analyzer at Duke to organize and annotate variants from whole-genome sequencing studies.
- Founded and led the bioinformatics group at Gilead Sciences from 2011 to 2016.
- Led phylogenomic analytical support associated with the regulatory approval of Sovaldi.
- Was named among Phacilitate's Top 50 Most Influential People in Big Data in 2015.
- Served on National Human Genome Research Institute Special Emphasis Panels in 2014 and 2015.
- Authored or co-authored more than 70 peer-reviewed papers by 2017.
- Is a named inventor on Apostle patent applications covering core-shell-shell magnetic beads and nucleic-acid size enrichment and separation.
- Built Apostle into a StartX company and established a global distribution partnership with Beckman Coulter Life Sciences.

## Latest updates

- **2025-05** — Signed Apostle's attestation to the U.S. Framework for Nucleic Acid Synthesis Screening as CEO.
- **2024-02** — Apostle launched the MagTouch 3000 large-volume nucleic-acid extraction automation system.
- **2023-01** — Announced Apostle's acquisition of a new headquarters building at 3589 Nevada Street in Pleasanton.
- **2023-01** — Highlighted a new Journal of Visualized Experiments paper using Apostle MiniMax and continued growth in independent studies citing the technology.

## Links

- Website: https://www.apostlebio.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-ge-6b0b2b1b
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/apostleinc

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/david-ge
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-18