About Giulia C. Kennedy, PhD

Origin

Giulia C. Kennedy is a molecular biologist and diagnostics innovator with deep expertise in genomics, bioinformatics and translational research. She is co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of PinkDx, a women's health company developing less invasive diagnostics for gynecologic cancers.¹²

She joined Veracyte in April 2008 as Senior Vice President of Research and Development, became Chief Scientific Officer in September 2008, added the role of Chief Medical Officer in 2018, was named Global Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Medical Officer in January 2022, and departed at the end of 2022.³⁴

Before Veracyte she was a Senior Director at Affymetrix from January 2000 to March 2008, and earlier held scientific roles at Chiron Corporation and Millennium Pharmaceuticals.³

She has published more than 70 peer-reviewed scientific articles and is a co-inventor on more than 20 patents.⁵

PinkDx, which she co-founded with Veracyte co-founder Bonnie Anderson, launched publicly on April 25, 2024 with $40 million in Series A financing and closed an upsized $45 million round in January 2025. The company is based in Daly City, California, and is developing diagnostics for gynecologic cancers, starting with endometrial cancer.²⁶

In April 2026 PinkDx published peer-reviewed evidence in the International Journal of Gynecological Cancer that molecular signals of endometrial cancer can be detected from a vaginal swab using whole-transcriptome sequencing and machine learning; Kennedy is a co-author and leads the company's scientific strategy and translational research.⁷⁸

Since leaving Veracyte she has served on the board of directors of Acuamark Diagnostics, appointed in April 2023, and in March 2026 joined the Scientific Advisory Board of Wisdom Bioscience, a developer of non-invasive oral cancer diagnostics.⁹¹⁰

Education

• B.S. · Applied ScienceYoungstown State University³
• Ph.D.Case Western Reserve University³
• Postdoctoral training · Biochemistry; Hormone Research InstituteUniversity of California, San Francisco³

Discipline

1. 2003 – 2005

   Whole-genome genotyping

   First author and co-author of the GeneChip Mapping array methods papers

   The methods papers behind array-based SNP genotyping: Nature Biotechnology 2003, Genome Research and Nature Methods 2004, and the Bioinformatics genotype-calling algorithms of 2003 and 2005.

2. APR 2015 – APR 2024

   Percepta and Envisia

   Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Medical Officer, Veracyte

   Genomic classifiers for the lung: Percepta for suspicious nodules after an inconclusive bronchoscopy (2015), Envisia for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis without surgical biopsy (2016), and a nasal swab test for lung cancer risk.

3. JUL 2024 – PRESENT

   Reading endometrial cancer from a vaginal swab

   Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer, PinkDx

   The PNK001 study showed that molecular signals of endometrial cancer can be read from a vaginal swab by whole-transcriptome sequencing and machine learning, published in April 2026; the PROACTION study is validating the test.

Career

1. 1992 – 1995

   Education and training

   B.S. Applied Science; Ph.D. Biochemistry; postdoctoral training in biochemistry

   A B.S. in Applied Science from Youngstown State, a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Case Western Reserve, and postdoctoral training at UCSF, where her earliest papers traced how the insulin gene is switched on (1980s–early 1990s).

2. 1999 – 1999

   Millennium Pharmaceuticals

   Scientist, diabetes susceptibility genes

   A scientist at Millennium Pharmaceuticals in the 1990s, applying genomic and genetic approaches to uncover diabetes susceptibility genes. Dates within the decade are not sourced.

3. 1999 – 1999

   Chiron Corporation

   Scientific leader, colon and breast cancer gene discovery

   Scientific leader for Chiron's colon and breast cancer gene discovery efforts, which identified oncology markers for therapeutic drug development; named inventor on Chiron patent filings on colon-cancer polynucleotides.

4. JAN 2000 – MAR 2008

   Affymetrix

   Senior Director; led the Genomics Collaborations and Genotyping Technology R&D groups

   Eight years as Senior Director at Affymetrix (January 2000 – March 2008), leading the Genomics Collaborations and Genotyping Technology R&D groups behind the GeneChip Mapping arrays.

5. APR 2008 – DEC 2022

   Veracyte

   Chief Scientific Officer; Chief Medical Officer from 2018; Global Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Medical Officer from 2022

   Bonnie Anderson's first executive hire at Veracyte in 2008. As Chief Scientific Officer, then Chief Medical Officer, she led the science behind Afirma, Percepta and Envisia over fourteen years.

6. JUL 2019 – PRESENT

   Astarte Medical Partners

   Director (unconfirmed)

   Financial-data aggregators list Kennedy as a director of Astarte Medical Partners from July 2019. No press release, company page or filing confirms it, so the role is recorded here as an open question.

7. APR 2023 – PRESENT

   Acuamark Diagnostics

   Member, Board of Directors

   Four months after leaving Veracyte, Kennedy joined the board of Acuamark Diagnostics, a company developing high-throughput qPCR technology for blood-based early detection of cancer.

8. MAR 2026 – PRESENT

   Wisdom Bioscience

   Member, Scientific Advisory Board

   In March 2026 Kennedy joined the new Scientific Advisory Board of Wisdom Bioscience, a developer of non-invasive, cell-free DNA based oral cancer diagnostics, alongside Arnold Levine, John Sninsky, Martin Goldberg and Tin Tin Su.

Research

1. JAN 2011 – JAN 2018

   Afirma

   Chief Scientific Officer, Veracyte

   Veracyte's first product: a gene expression classifier that tells benign thyroid nodules from suspicious ones when cytology cannot. Launched January 2011, validated in the NEJM in 2012, 100,000 tests by 2018.

2. OCT 2013 – NOV 2013

   Veracyte goes public

   Chief Scientific Officer, Veracyte

   Veracyte priced its initial public offering on October 30, 2013 at $13.00 a share and began trading on NASDAQ as VCYT, five years after Kennedy joined as its first executive hire.

3. MAY 2017 – SEP 2022

   Afirma GSC and the Xpression Atlas

   Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Medical Officer, Veracyte

   The second-generation Afirma: RNA sequencing and ensemble machine learning, validated in JAMA Surgery in 2018, finding at least a third more benign nodules than the original test, with the Xpression Atlas reading variants and fusions from the same sample.

4. OCT 2019 – MAY 2025

   A patent family

   Co-inventor

   Co-inventor on more than 20 patents. The Veracyte family runs from a 2009 priority date on molecular profiling of thyroid nodules to grants in 2024 and 2025, with separate lines on sample classification and detecting usual interstitial pneumonia.

Leadership

1. JUL 2019 – PRESENT

   Astarte Medical Partners

   Director (unconfirmed)

   Financial-data aggregators list Kennedy as a director of Astarte Medical Partners from July 2019. No press release, company page or filing confirms it, so the role is recorded here as an open question.

2. APR 2023 – PRESENT

   Acuamark Diagnostics

   Member, Board of Directors

   Four months after leaving Veracyte, Kennedy joined the board of Acuamark Diagnostics, a company developing high-throughput qPCR technology for blood-based early detection of cancer.

3. APR 2024 – PRESENT

   PinkDx

   Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer

   Co-founded with Bonnie Anderson, PinkDx launched on April 25, 2024 with a $40 million Series A, upsized to $45 million in 2025, to build less invasive diagnostics for gynecologic cancers from Daly City, California.

4. MAR 2026 – PRESENT

   Wisdom Bioscience

   Member, Scientific Advisory Board

   In March 2026 Kennedy joined the new Scientific Advisory Board of Wisdom Bioscience, a developer of non-invasive, cell-free DNA based oral cancer diagnostics, alongside Arnold Levine, John Sninsky, Martin Goldberg and Tin Tin Su.

Perspective

The challenge for diagnostics companies lies in developing machine learning algorithms that can harness this data and realize its potential to have a real and meaningful impact on patient care.