About Us

What is Monkeypox?
Monkeypox is a rare disease caused by infection with the monkeypox virus. Monkeypox virus is part of the same family of viruses as variola virus, the virus that causes smallpox. Monkeypox symptoms are similar to smallpox symptoms, but milder, and monkeypox is rarely fatal. Monkeypox is not related to chickenpox. For more information about monkeypox, please visit the US CDC website: https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/about/index.html

Monkeypox symptoms
People with monkeypox get a rash that may be located on or near the genitals (penis, testicles, labia, and vagina) or anus (butthole) and could be on other areas like the hands, feet, chest, face, or mouth. The rash will go through several stages, including scabs, before healing. The rash can initially look like pimples or blisters and may be painful or itchy.

When to Get Tested
If you think you have monkeypox or have had close personal contact with someone who has monkeypox, consider taking precautions and visit a healthcare provider to help you decide if you need to be tested for monkeypox. Monkeypox rtPCR Test is a nucleic acid-based test for the monkeypox virus. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method is considered the "gold standard" for the detection and is characterized by rapid detection, high sensitivity, and specificity.

Apostle Diagnostics is located in San Jose, California. We are a clinical laboratory authorized by the US federal CLIA (CLIA ID 05D2191922), accredited by College of American Pathologists (CAP Number 8830916), with a clinical laboratory license issued by the California state government. Our laboratory is 1 of 2 testing sites endorsed by the San Francisco Chinese Consulate General. Our COVID clinical testing site in San Jose, CA has provided service for more than 50,000 people and 100,000 tests since November 2020. The purpose of the laboratory is to serve the community through accurate and timely diagnostic services. We’re passionate about helping our communities begin their new “normal” by providing a safe environment to return to.

Apostle is led by a group of life science professionals and was established in 2017. The CEO of the laboratory is Dr. David Ge. Dr. Ge was an assistant professor at Duke University School of Medicine, and a director at Gilead, a large multinational drug company in virology. He has written many scientific and technological literatures on Nature and Science, and has more than 20 years on Hepatitis C virus, Hepatitis B virus, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and other genomic diagnostics research experience.

The laboratory has two joint laboratory directors; Wenqi Zeng, MD, PhD, FACMG and Charles Strom, MD, PhD, FAAP, FACMG, HCLD. Dr. Zeng once served as Senior Director of Clinical Molecular Diagnostics at Quest Diagnostics, a large medical diagnostics multinational company. Dr. Zeng was Director of Clinical Molecular Diagnostics Center at City of Hope National Cancer Center and General Director of Ambry Genetics Clinical Laboratory. He was a Harvard Medical School Massachusetts General Hospital Human Medical Genetics Researcher and holds a diploma of ABMGG. Moreover, Dr. Zeng is a qualified CAP CLIA Lab Director in California, New York and Maryland. Collectively, he has more than 20 years of American clinical diagnostics experience.

Dr. Strom has served as the Vice President of Quest, a large multinational medical diagnostic company and is the Director of the UCLA Head and Neck Tumor Center at the UCLA Children's Hospital. He has more than 40 years of clinical medicine and diagnostics experience in the United States. The laboratory staff is composed of professional diagnostic laboratory technicians who have been professionally trained.

The laboratory provides coronavirus nucleic acid detection, coronavirus IgG/IgM antibody detection, coronavirus neutralizing antibody detection, non-invasive prenatal diagnosis (NIPT), and a variety of tumor molecular diagnostics and other clinical field detection and diagnosis services. In addition to the clinical diagnosis service department, Apostle R&D and production departments also provide Apostle MiniMax cell-free nucleic acid extraction kit, Apostle MiniGenomics coronavirus RNA extraction kit, and Apostle MagTouch automated nucleic acid extraction system. At present, these nucleic acid technology systems and products are widely used in the United States for more than 15 million coronavirus tests, covering people in multiple states.

The laboratory upholds the people-oriented and science-oriented service concept and is committed to serving the community and providing accurate, strict and timely clinical testing services.