To close a key gap in women’s health, this Waterloo startup is turning to an unlikely source

While the Waterloo-based company is still in the early stages of fundraising, this innovative approach has the potential to allow women, non-binary and trans people access critical health diagnostics in a non-invasive way — an appealing prospect for groups with a complicated relationship to reproductive health. 

Here, Elebute talks about co-founder chemistry, the stigma attached to menstrual blood and why making room for marginalized communities is the best way to foster innovation:

I wanted to be a doctor until I realized I had an interesting relationship to seeing people in pain — I didn’t like it.

I decided to do the next best thing, which was study biomedical and mechanical engineering so I could help people through the use of technology.

I pursued my bachelor’s at Carleton University and my master’s at the University of Saskatchewan and have been working in health tech for the past decade.

I moved to Kitchener-Waterloo with the purpose of finding a project that resonated with me and that I could bring to market.

There are schools that are very good with research but it just stays there.

The University of Waterloo has proven to be a hub of technology sprouting out into the world.

This program has placed me in the right ecosystem for magic to happen — I met my CELLECT cofounder, C.T. Murphy, at a university incubator.

I’d tried my hand at different areas in health such as osteoarthritis and diabetes hoping to find the right fit.

She was using her engineering degree and expertise in nanotechnology to work on an alternative to traditional Pap tests and was desperately looking for a co-founder.

We have very complementary skills.

C.T. is gifted — she can be very intense and focused and go deep.

I can be scatterbrained (in a good way), where I can juggle 1,001 things at the same time, plus I have an engineering background and experience in the health tech industry.

It really helps that we can lean on each other.

We also have things in common: we’re very hard working and intentional and passionate about this solution. We understand what an honour it is to bring this to market.

Even though we’re still in the very beginning stages, when I pitch, people will come up and thank us for doing this work. It’s humbling.

I’ve heard stories from people who’ve had cervical cancer or who’ve lost someone to it.

If they had a more accessible screening method, maybe they wouldn’t have been in that situation.

What we’re doing is important, not just for HPV and cervical cancer screening, but for women’s health in general.

There’s lots of untapped work in everything from endometriosis to breast cancer research, and we’re hoping to do what we can to help. 

That’s how we should all look at it instead of seeing it as dirty.

There’s so much information that’s contained in menstrual blood, it’s almost infuriating that it hasn’t been used as a diagnostic fluid up until now.

We use saliva, we use urine, we use stool, but not this.

CELLECT is focused on catching up for all the years that have been missed.

As a woman, I understand just how underserved we’ve been in the health tech space. That’s just one of the gaps.

Millions of Canadians don’t have a family doctor. Access in rural areas is limited.

Gender-diverse individuals aren’t taken into account in current practices. Certain groups have constraints when it comes to having anything inserted in their cervix.

These are what we call the key personas behind our product. Our pad design, which gathers the menstrual blood, doesn’t involve insertion, and it can be done at home. 

In an ideal world, everyone would have a GP and rapid access to screening, but that’s not the case.

If we can work with government, there’s a real opportunity to come up with a hybrid solution.

CELLECT is well positioned to be a bridge and solve part of the problem. We’d have to figure out the nuances, of course.

Yes. But it’s not too early to approach diagnostic labs and companies, which is what we’ve been doing.

The sooner they learn about us, the sooner we can partner.

We realize we have to leap over a huge barrier when we’re saying that menstrual blood is a powerful diagnostic tool and should be used.

There’s education to be done, awareness and campaigns to build, in addition to working on the tech.

We want to be the collection device company for gynecological samples across the world, and we want to work closely with institutions to open up research.

That’s our big audacious goal. 

C.T. and I took part in incubators, which were key.

I’d like to see more innovation challenges built around marginalized groups.

It’s so easy to focus on things that have commercial potential, that can make money, that the majority would want or need.

It’s very important that we think of the people for whom the current methods do not work. We need targeted resources for them.

You’re speaking from experience. During the pandemic, you started a virtual summer STEM program for kids across Canada and Nigeria, your country of origin. It has grown into a non-for-profit, STEMite Zone Fair, that hosts student STEM fairs in Nigeria.

When I was at the University of Saskatchewan, I did a lot of work with STEM for kids — teaching, tutoring, volunteering.

It made me think about how I wasn’t exposed to those things growing up in Nigeria.

I wanted to be able to give students back home opportunities I never had.

We had our first official fair last year, and there were more than 100 projects.

Kids made their own virtual reality goggles, their own guitars, their own soaps and creams, using local materials, using what they had on hand.

For me, it confirmed that one of the best ways to encourage innovation is by providing a platform.