With the FemTech market set to be worth $1trillion by 2027 (McKinsey & Company), impulse, the University of Cambridge’s unique entrepreneurship programme, has seen a sharp rise in the number of participants contributing novel innovations to this exciting sector.
Chemical biologist, Melis Ekinci is one of the standout female entrepreneurs from impulse’s latest 2024 cohort focused on addressing health inequalities in the UK. Through her company, Woost, Melis is on a mission to improve women’s health and address the unmet needs of women in the healthcare system.
Woost’s initial focus is a home blood test kit for women, enabling them to regularly track biomarkers in their menstrual blood in order to detect gynaecological conditions earlier. Aimed primarily at those suffering with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) - which affects 1 in 10 women of childbearing age – the kit works in conjunction with a digital platform, where women can analyse their results, understand their symptoms, and access reviewed health information and treatment support.
Melis was awarded an impulse fellowship, sponsored by The Henry Royce Institute, to help her build her unique diagnostics company. She is currently conducting a clinical study funded by Innovate UK Smart grant to demonstrate technical feasibility, and begins a fundraise at the end of the year.
Melis says: “The only way for women to impactfully improve or maintain their health is by self-testing – because the accessibility of healthcare for such regular testing just isn’t available. If women aren’t aware of what’s happening inside our own bodies, we are no more than living timebombs until something severe happens.”
In the most recent report from The Department of Health and Social Care [*DHSC, November 2022], 84% of women reported feeling unheard or overlooked by healthcare professionals – highlighting the urgent need for women to be empowered with the means to better understand their own individual health journeys, and be able to advocate for themselves.
Melis says she was prompted to do something about this after, herself, suffering the debilitating symptoms of PCOS for 10 years before being given a positive diagnosis.
She says: “I was displaying all the physical symptoms – yet the sporadically timed blood tests I was given over the years always came back ‘clean’, and so never led to a diagnosis.
“Menstrual blood testing, however, is convenient, non-invasive and uniquely, it offers gender-specific blood testing and the opportunity to test for novel biomarkers. The potential market for this is huge because of the number of women with undiagnosed PCOS – and Woost is building an AI-assisted system where we target symptom tracking specially associated with PCOS, alongside menstrual blood testing.”
She adds: “The impulse programme dissects every aspect of an entrepreneur's journey and fills in the gaps. The network it offers was one of my chief reasons for participating – and now to be part of that network is incredible. The conversations I have had just opened my mind in so many different ways: both the conversations with my fellow participants and the one-to-ones with the experts as well.”
The globally respected impulse programme runs over three months and is aimed primarily at early-stage founders, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, researchers and Postdocs across all aspects of technology and life science. Significantly, impulse alumni have been behind a succession of recent £multi-million company success stories including Riverlane, Xampla, Wave Photonics, Echion Technologies, Abselion, and Tenyks.
The programme’s success lies in the programme’s unique learning environment, built around a top-tier mentoring scheme where participants are guided by trailblazers from Cambridge’s celebrated innovation cluster. Mentors include luminaries such as Arm co-founder Jamie Urquhart, award-winning geneticist Prof Anne Ferguson-Smith, Cambridge Silicon Radio Ltd co-founder Phil O’Donovan and Jane Dancer, who has held executive roles in life science startups such as F-Star Biotechnology Ltd (acquired by invoX Pharma for $161million) and Cambridge Antibody Technology (acquired by Astrazeneca in 2006).
Lorna Maclean is another from this year’s 2024 cohort targeting the gender health gap.
Her company, Demetria aims to revolutionise the diagnosis of endometriosis, an excruciatingly painful condition which is the leading cause of female infertility, affecting 190 million women globally. In the UK, the average time to diagnosis is nine years and increasing – and, currently, invasive laparoscopic surgery is the only definitive way to diagnose the condition.
Demetria, however, is making use of game-changing AI technology to detect endometriosis during an ultrasound scan, speeding diagnoses, improving patient outcomes and, importantly, eliminating the need for any surgery at all.
Lorna says: “Every woman has an ultrasound scan as part of the diagnostic workup – but it can be missed, even if the woman has the disease. But, if endometriosis isn’t found on an ultrasound, the NHS won't refer you on to the laparoscopic surgery, and neither will private health insurance fund it. As a result, there are many women getting caught up in the system, experiencing pain again and again, unaware of this flaw in the diagnostic process.”
She adds: “I lived with the debilitating pain of endometriosis for 15 years and underwent 50 ultrasound scans, all of which failed to detect my endometriosis. Even when I found a surgeon willing to do the surgery, I had to self-fund because the ultrasound scans had shown nothing - and that’s an expensive option, which is not open to all women.
“impulse has given me the tools and connections to turn an idea born of frustration into a viable solution. It is quite remarkable that such a programme exists, where so many of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs are willing to offer their time so generously to young startups. You only have to look at the alumni of this programme to see the value it delivers.”
Yupar Myint, Head of impulse says: “FemTech startups are more likely to be founded by female entrepreneurs, and we are delighted to support these innovative women who are committed to improving care delivery and diagnoses, addressing stigmatized areas, enabling self-care, and generally helping women take greater charge of their health and health-related data.
“It is important to spotlight the involvement and impact of women in entrepreneurship as this will encourage others to follow suit.”
The impulse programme is run out of the Maxwell Centre, the University of Cambridge’s hub for industry and research on the West Cambridge Science and Technology Campus. Operating since 2016, The Maxwell Centre forms part of the world-renowned Cavendish Laboratory and provides a centrepiece for industrial partnership with the physical sciences and engineering.
The 2025 programme will run from 29th April – 11th July 2025. To discuss participation and for all other enquiries, please email impulse@maxwell.cam.ac.uk (sponsored Fellowships are available for certain technology and research areas).
Image: L-R Melis Ekinci, Lorna Maclean and Yupar Myint
