Ibukun Elebute is the co-founder and chief operating officer of CELLECT Laboratories, a startup bringing nanotechnology to menstrual products for cervical cancer screening. When her business partner CT Murphy had an uncomfortable pap smear, the two decided to apply their knowledge of biomedical engineering for their graduating project at the University of Waterloo in Ontario.
Inclusion Women were not included in clinical trials until the early 1990s. Everything we’ve learned has been based on the male anatomy, whereas women’s health is just seen as a side project. When you’re dealing with half of the world’s population, however, it’s a smart move to invest in their health.
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Design We’ve developed a technology to extract and stabilize cervical cells and other proteins in menstrual blood, while reducing contaminants to selectively — hence our name — pick out larger mammalian cells. Think of it as salt gel in a velcro stick-on that is put on a commercial pad or tampon. After about 30 minutes of use, you can take off the gel piece to send to a lab for processing.
Access For cervical cancer testing, you used to need an appointment. It takes up the doctor’s time, and you need access to a health-care facility. There are also cultural sensitivities around inserting anything in the vagina. We’re tackling that by having a completely passive way of collecting cells, using a pad embedded with a nanochip. It’s especially useful for those who have trauma and negative gynecological experiences. And where there’s no lab in remote areas, CELLECT allows you to transport the samples at room temperature.
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Breakthrough From speaking with gynecological researchers, we’ve learned the importance of high-quality menstrual samples for studies into polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), endometriosis and other women’s health diseases. Some labs have expressed such excitement that we have already secured partnerships to prove our prototype and serve the research potential before even getting into cervical cancer.
Future Women should question why we use urine, saliva, blood and poop as diagnostic samples but not menstrual blood. It’s so rich, but the stigma against it poses a huge barrier to a lot of insights that we could unlock in women’s health research.
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This interview has been edited for length and clarity. It first appeard in Broadview’s November/December 2025 issue.
Ghazal Azizi is a journalist and fact-checker in Montreal.
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