Stem cells from menstrual blood: Femtech co-founder inspired by girlfriend’s periods

Kyle Lao (left) and Immanuella Indradjaja co-founded MenSC Labs, which uses stem cells from menstrual blood for regenerative women’s health.

ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN

Published Sep 12, 2026, 10:35 AM

Updated Sep 12, 2026, 12:37 PM

MenSC Labs, a femtech start-up in Singapore, uses stem cells from menstrual blood for regenerative women’s health, offering a non-invasive and ethical alternative to traditional stem cell sources.

The start-up, founded by Kyle Lao and Immanuella Indradjaja, collects menstrual blood from donors to isolate stem cells, which are sold to research labs and used in developing clinical treatments.

MenSC Labs aims to raise awareness about women’s health, fight stigma around menstruation, and develop regenerative therapies for conditions like Asherman’s Syndrome and premature ovarian insufficiency.

SINGAPORE – At 25, Kyle Lao is chief executive and co-founder of MenSC Labs, a femtech start-up with an unusual focus – it utilises stem cells from menstrual blood for regenerative women’s health.

Stem cells can make more of themselves, Lao explains. When damage or disease occurs, these cells help in two ways: They release signals that reduce inflammation and nurture the body’s own cells to survive and heal themselves.

In other cases, they can even turn into new cells to replace the damaged ones.

While stem cells are usually harvested from sources including bone marrow, blood and the umbilical cord, menstrual blood is as yet an untapped source, says Lao, a recent graduate from the National University of Singapore (NUS) with a bachelor of science degree in business analytics.

It is plentiful, does not require surgical intervention to harvest and poses fewer ethical issues because the company obtains informed consent from donors and is transparent about its data handling.

Unlike embryonic stem cells, there are fewer concerns about embryo management as well.

Lao became curious about menstruation after he met his girlfriend of four years, who is aged 25 and works in the mediation industry.

She found period-tracking apps frustrating because her cycle was irregular, which led to some anxiety as she could not predict her periods.

“Seeing how she didn’t have the answers, I wanted to understand more about the space,” says Lao.

In 2024, he met his co-founder Immanuella Indradjaja, 22, during a year-long internship at a biotechnology company in Silicon Valley in the United States. They were there as part of the NUS Overseas College programme that gives entrepreneurial undergraduates overseas exposure to start-ups.

During a visit to a hackathon in the area, they met an American small business owner, who mooted the idea of using menstrual blood as a source of stem cells. The pair teamed up with her to present the idea and won second place in the competition.

They continued to work on the concept and later got in touch with a research team from Australia, which had discovered adult stem cells in the endometrium (the lining in the uterus) in 2007.

Lao and Immanuella, who is Indonesian and has a background in life sciences, started MenSC Labs in November 2024. Its name is a scientific acronym for menstrual-derived stem cells.

Immanuella says her interest stemmed from seeing the gaps in healthcare solutions for women.

“In the past five to 10 years, women’s health used to be a niche with relatively few solutions, like simple period-tracking apps. Today, we’re seeing a greater shift towards recognising it as a critical part of healthcare,” she adds.

At MenSC Labs, women recruited through social media and word of mouth donate their menstrual blood using a collection kit.

The kit includes a menstrual cup to collect the samples – usually on the second and third day of their cycle – test tubes to pour the samples into, an ice pack and a vial containing a mixture of anticoagulants and antibiotics that keeps the blood from clotting and prevents bacterial contamination.

The samples are couriered to or dropped off at the laboratory where the stem cells are isolated and cultured, or grown. Each sample typically has about 2ml to 3ml of blood, which yields a g ood number of cells, Lao says.

The company has about 70 active donors comprising mainly students, teaching staff and researchers in NUS as MenSC Labs is based in a laboratory there. The majority are in their early to mid-20s and they are reimbursed $60 a sample. There is a waiting list of over 300 women.

After quality control tests, the cultured stem cells are sold as off-the-shelf cells to researchers in Australia and Singapore, who use them in lab work. Donors are informed of where their samples are used.

Its research-use products are currently used by over 10 research labs in Singapore, Australia and the US.

Beyond this, MenSC Labs is developing its own clinical programme and hopes to work with clinicians and researchers on regenerative medicine treatments for women’s health.

The Gen Z founders have raised just under $100,000 in funding so far. This includes a $10,000 grant from NUS Enterprise and another $50,000 from Enterprise Singapore’s Startup SG Founder Programme . The rest came from family members and friends.

They are hoping to raise more pre-seed funding, despite difficulties, partly because menstruation remains a taboo topic.

“A big part of our business model is trying to give back to women’s health and to raise awareness of it. People always get a shock when they hear about us. Some may call it a waste product, but that’s just a perception. It’s part of a biological process,” Lao says.

However, others are intrigued by the concept and say they hope his start-up’s work will help unravel the prevailing stigma around menstrual cycles, premenstrual syndrome and sanitary pads, he adds.

Strangers have come up to tell him: “Hey, you’re doing great work.”

The company is launching a menstrual blood analysis service, believed to be the first of its kind in Singapore, although a few companies in the US also offer this.

This test helps clinicians screen menstrual fluid for specific conditions like endometriosis and polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome , a condition formerly called polycystic ovary syndrome , among other uses.

But in the longer term, Lao and Immanuella have a far loftier goal – potentially helping to develop treatments for conditions such as Asherman’s Syndrome, which forms scar tissue in the uterus, and premature ovarian insufficiency , where the ovaries stop working before a woman hits age 40.

He says: “We want to be one of the first companies to develop regenerative treatments for women’s health. That means we want to understand how to use the stem cells to cure some women-specific diseases.”

Stephanie Yeo is senior correspondent at The Straits Times’ Life section.

Technology and research

Health and well-being

Kyle Lao（左）和 Immanuella Indradjaja 共同创立了 MenSC Labs，该公司利用月经血中的干细胞进行女性再生健康治疗。

圣徒照片：吴索銮

发布于 2026 年 9 月 12 日上午 10:35

更新于2026年9月12日下午12:37

新加坡一家名为 MenSC Labs 的女性科技初创公司，利用月经血中的干细胞进行女性再生健康治疗，为传统的干细胞来源提供了一种非侵入性和符合伦理的替代方案。

这家由 Kyle Lao 和 Immanuella Indradjaja 创立的初创公司，从捐赠者身上收集月经血，分离干细胞，然后将这些干细胞出售给研究实验室，用于开发临床治疗方法。

MenSC Labs 致力于提高人们对女性健康的认识，消除对月经的歧视，并开发针对阿舍曼综合征和卵巢早衰等疾病的再生疗法。

新加坡——25 岁的 Kyle Lao 是 MenSC Labs 的首席执行官兼联合创始人，这是一家专注于女性健康的科技初创公司，其业务重点不同寻常——它利用月经血中的干细胞来促进女性的再生健康。

老教授解释说，干细胞可以自我复制。当身体受损或患病时，这些细胞会通过两种方式发挥作用：它们释放信号来减轻炎症，并滋养身体自身的细胞，使其存活并自我修复。

在其他情况下，它们甚至可以转化为新的细胞来替换受损的细胞。

新加坡国立大学 (NUS) 商业分析理学学士学位毕业生 Lao 表示，虽然干细胞通常从骨髓、血液和脐带等来源中获取，但月经血仍是一个尚未开发的来源。

它来源丰富，无需手术即可获取，而且由于公司会获得捐赠者的知情同意，并在数据处理方面保持透明，因此伦理问题较少。

与胚胎干细胞不同，胚胎管理方面的问题也较少。

老先生在遇到他交往四年的女友后，开始对月经感到好奇。他的女友25岁，在中介行业工作。

她发现经期追踪应用程序令人沮丧，因为她的月经周期不规律，这导致她无法预测月经来潮，从而感到焦虑。

“看到她没有答案，我就想更多地了解这个领域，”Lao说道。

2024年，他在美国硅谷一家生物技术公司进行为期一年的实习期间，结识了22岁的联合创始人伊曼纽拉·因德拉贾贾。他们当时是新加坡国立大学海外学院项目的一员，该项目旨在让有创业精神的本科生有机会到海外接触初创企业。

在参加当地的一次黑客马拉松活动时，他们遇到了一位美国小企业主，这位企业主提出了利用经血作为干细胞来源的想法。两人与她合作展示了这个想法，并在比赛中获得了第二名。

他们继续研究这个概念，后来与澳大利亚的一个研究团队取得了联系，该团队于 2007 年在子宫内膜（子宫内壁）中发现了成体干细胞。

Lao 和 Immanuella（她是印度尼西亚人，拥有生命科学背景）于 2024 年 11 月创立了 MenSC Labs。其名称是 menstrual-derived stem cells（月经衍生干细胞）的科学缩写。

伊曼纽拉表示，她的兴趣源于她看到了女性医疗保健解决方案方面的不足。

她补充说：“过去五到十年，女性健康一直是一个相对小众的领域，解决方案也相对较少，比如简单的经期追踪应用程序。如今，我们看到人们越来越认识到女性健康是医疗保健的重要组成部分。”

在 MenSC Labs，通过社交媒体和口口相传招募的女性使用采集包捐献她们的经血。

该试剂盒包括一个月经杯（用于收集样本，通常在月经周期的第二天和第三天收集）、用于倒入样本的试管、一个冰袋和一个装有抗凝剂和抗生素混合物的试管，该混合物可防止血液凝固并防止细菌污染。

样本会被快递或亲自送到实验室，在那里进行干细胞的分离和培养。劳医生说，每个样本通常含有约2至3毫升血液，可以提取出相当数量的细胞。

该公司约有70名活跃捐献者，主要包括新加坡国立大学的学生、教职员工和研究人员，因为MenSC Labs的实验室就设在该校内。他们大多在20岁出头，每次捐献可获得60新元的报酬。目前还有300多名女性在等待捐献。

经过质量控制检测后，培养的干细胞作为现成细胞出售给澳大利亚和新加坡的研究人员，供他们在实验室中使用。捐赠者会被告知其样本的用途。

其科研用途产品目前被新加坡、澳大利亚和美国的 10 多个研究实验室使用。

除此之外，MenSC Labs 正在开发自己的临床项目，并希望与临床医生和研究人员合作，开发用于女性健康的再生医学疗法。

这家由Z世代创始人组成的创业公司目前已筹集到近10万美元的资金。其中包括新加坡国立大学企业发展局提供的1万美元资助，以及新加坡企业发展局“Startup SG Founder Programme”提供的5万美元资助。其余资金来自家人和朋友。

尽管面临诸多困难，他们仍希望筹集更多种子轮融资，部分原因是月经仍然是一个禁忌话题。

“我们商业模式的重要组成部分是回馈女性健康，并提高人们对女性健康的认识。人们听到我们的故事总是感到震惊。有些人可能会认为这是废物，但这只是一种看法。它是生物过程的一部分，”Lao说道。

但他补充说，其他人则对这个概念很感兴趣，并表示希望他的初创公司的工作能够帮助消除围绕月经周期、经前综合症和卫生巾的普遍污名。

陌生人走过来对他说：“嘿，你做得很好。”

该公司即将推出月经血分析服务，据信这是新加坡首家此类服务，尽管美国也有一些公司提供这项服务。

该测试可以帮助临床医生筛查月经液，以诊断子宫内膜异位症和多内分泌代谢性卵巢综合征（以前称为多囊卵巢综合征）等特定疾病，此外还有其他用途。

但从长远来看，Lao 和 Immanuella 有一个更远大的目标——他们希望能够帮助开发治疗诸如阿舍曼综合征（一种会在子宫内形成疤痕组织的疾病）和卵巢早衰（一种女性在 40 岁之前卵巢停止工作的疾病）等疾病的方法。

他说：“我们希望成为首批开发女性健康再生疗法的公司之一。这意味着我们希望了解如何利用干细胞来治愈一些女性特有的疾病。”

Stephanie Yeo是《海峡时报》生活版的高级记者。

技术与研究

健康与福祉