Meet Jeyla Sadikova, Co-founder and Strategist of Illumicell AI, Turning Male Fertility on its Head
An Imperial College London alumni and former McKinsey consultant, Jeyla has spent her career fixing complex, high-stakes systems. Today she is the Co-founder and CSO of illumicell AI, an imaging platform that reads the most fundamental unit of health – the cell in fluid – in real time.
Her first target: sperm.
Why start with men in an interview for Formidable Women? Because throughout Jeyla’s work with illumicell AI, women consistently pull her aside to share how fertility treatments have hijacked their hormones, calendars, and emotions … all while male diagnostics remain slow, subjective, and under-used. By making sperm analysis fast, accurate, and clinic-friendly, she’s shifting part of that burden away from women and toward equitable, data-driven care for both partners.
Tell us about your entrepreneurial journey and how it led you to launch illumicell AI.
I often say that my entrepreneurial journey began when I was 11 years old. I began joining my father on international business trips to interpret business meetings in English and Russian. Growing up in a post-Soviet environment, I was surrounded by grandmothers, aunts and women who led labs, factories and scientific institutions. It never occurred to me that leadership was gendered.
Traveling abroad, I quickly learned how cultural norms differed. In Japan, the presence of a chubby 11-year-old girl raised eyebrows. In the Middle East, I was often overlooked. But my father had a rule: “Focus on your job.” That mindset stayed with me. It shaped my resilience, sharpened my communication skills and made me comfortable being the only woman in the room long before I knew how valuable that would become.
I went on to train as an architect, study business, take countless unpaid internships to learn from some incredible professionals. My favourite role after grad school was at McKinsey. They’re known for being tough, but for me, it was one of the most formative experiences. In some ways, it echoed my childhood: no less serious, but far more demanding. I was presenting to top executives at multinational companies, ministers, senior partners – often the only woman in the room.
Then in 2020, my life was changed with one COVID-19 test. I was traveling between the Swiss McKinsey office and my home country, Azerbaijan, and needed a test, which, at the time, was surprisingly hard to get. That’s how I connected with Michel, then a doctor with the Swiss Army overseeing army-wide COVID testing. He offered to run a test for me, with results in three days. I laughed: three days felt absurd. He replied, “Then just Google it, I’m sure there are online COVID testing services.”
There weren’t. That’s when we realized the gap – and that’s how Testasy began.
In 2021, we started building a telemedicine platform that helped doctors, labs and travelers navigate COVID-19 testing logistics. Running tens of thousands of tests showed us just how outdated and manual many diagnostic workflows still are. We realized that if a single viral test created this much friction, more complex cellular analyses faced even more challenges. Testasy gave us front-row seats to both the bottlenecks and the market demand. That insight sparked the idea for illumicell AI: a real-time imaging platform that can read any cells in fluid, starting with sperm.
What was it like when you first started out?
Following our experience with Testasy, Michel and I were eager to apply our tech stack to something bigger: a diagnostics platform that could streamline everything from basic blood tests to complex cellular analyses – all in one place.
But as we began fundraising, the feedback was clear: the vision was too broad.
We knew that lab tests were generally inefficient, but we needed to focus on one use case. One clear pain point – something so inefficient, frustrating or overlooked that patients were actively avoiding it.
Enter: sperm testing.
Despite being the most reliable assessment of male fertility, sperm testing hasn’t evolved much since the 1970s. It’s still the first step in every couple’s fertility journey, but the process is utterly outdated.
Imagine this: a man walks into a fertility clinic with his partner. A nurse escorts him (awkwardly) to a cramped, poorly lit room, hands him a cup, points to an old TV and a stack of outdated adult magazines, and shuts the door. He’s given 10 minutes. The pressure is immense. His partner, the doctors and nurses waiting. And he’s acutely aware that thousands of other men have done this exact same thing in this exact same room – maybe just an hour earlier.
We’ve spoken to over 50 male patients across different countries. Unanimously, they all hate it. It’s no surprise so many delay or skip testing altogether.
And the result? Women end up carrying the fertility burden, rushing into invasive treatments while male testing is skipped or delayed.
The rise of at-home sperm testing kits over the last eight years proves one thing: the demand for better, more private and more accessible diagnostics is real. The demand is growing, We knew this space was too important not to innovate.
Focusing on male fertility gave our company direction. We reconnected with clinicians from our Testasy days and began prototyping a solution that applied machine learning to sperm analysis. But we quickly realized that layering new software on top of old lab microscopes wasn’t enough. It wouldn’t scale. It wouldn’t democratize access. It would still require labs and trained technicians.
That’s when Loup Cordey joined as our third co-founder.
Michel had met Loup at a New Year’s party. They hit it off by nerding out over science. Loup had been leading space missions at EPFL, building imaging systems to scan distant stars. When Michel brought him into the conversation, we realized something remarkable: the very same imaging principles could be applied to real-time cellular diagnostics.
That insight became the foundation for illumicell AI.
Loup Cordey, Jeyla Sadikova, and Dr. Michel Bielecki.
When did you realize that you had a billion-dollar idea?
I became obsessed with fertility.
Not just as a medical condition, but as a system: who authorizes treatment, who sets the clinical protocols, and which doctors serve as the true gatekeepers to care?
I wanted to understand the market from the inside out. The deeper I went, the more exciting it became.
What I uncovered flipped my perspective: fertility isn’t just an isolated health issue or a transient phase. I read hundreds of papers on semen analysis and sperm biology. Again and again, I came back to the same conclusion: this is one of the most underutilized biomarkers in medicine.
Especially for men, sperm is a diagnostic goldmine. Sperm quality isn’t only about reproduction – it’s tightly linked to metabolic health, cardiovascular risks, diabetes and (most surprisingly) longevity.
And yet, most of it remains locked away.
It’s inaccessible to most, unaffordable to many. And even when available, it’s reduced to basic metrics like count and motility. The deeper insights remain untouched.
So that’s when I realized it was a billion-dollar idea. If we could unlock fertility data at scale with our novel, cost-effective, decentralized system, the ripple effects would be massive. Precision medicine, smarter insurance, targeted pharmaceuticals, public health strategies – the impact is limitless.
Semen analysis isn’t just for fertility. What are the implications for greater family health and how is it a biomarker for overall health?
Semen analysis tells us a lot more than just whether a man is fertile – it has serious implications for women’s health and even long-term family health. We’ve seen sperm counts drop by over 50% in the last few decades, and increases in sperm DNA fragmentation are now linked to higher miscarriage rates and neurodevelopmental risks like autism in newborns.
But when a miscarriage happens, the default blame still lands on women. Women are the ones to bear the physical pain of medical interventions and a vast majority of the emotional grief. Every time I speak about illumicell AI on stage, it’s women who come up to me afterward. Women who’ve endured rounds of unnecessary treatments, who’ve suffered silently through miscarriages, thinking they were “not enough”, only to later discover the issue wasn’t theirs to carry alone. These stories are sadly far too common.
That got me thinking: where does all this blame come from? Why do we default to assuming fertility must be the woman’s issue?
Quick history lesson: It turns out, it’s a lot about female orgasm.
From the times of Aristotle to the medieval and up until the 18th century, doctors actually believed in “two seeds” – that both men and women needed to orgasm to conceive a child. Female pleasure was considered a biological necessity. But once scientists realised that women could get pregnant without orgasm, that belief was flipped on its head. Female orgasm was suddenly seen as irrelevant, indulgent, sinful.
At the same time, once the “seed” was inside the woman, 18th-century scientists theorised, everything from that point on depended solely on her.
That shift in science gave rise to moral conservatism and over time, female sexuality became something that men had to manage. We’ve lived without challenging these beliefs well into the 21st century. This is, what I call, culturally driven and scientifically flawed.
Back to real science.
Sperm quality can indeed affect pregnancy outcomes, embryo development, birth complications and the health of the child. Sperm is incredibly sensitive to stress, toxins and aging, which makes it a powerful early indicator of systemic health. A 2024 study even showed that male infertility can track across families – not just due to genetics, but possibly because of shared environmental exposures. Some studies have linked subfertile men to elevated cancer risk patterns in their families. There’s research showing that obesity and other metabolic issues can actually reprogram sperm epigenetically. That means a father’s health at the time of conception can influence whether his child is predisposed to conditions like obesity or diabetes. It’s wild to think about, but sperm isn’t just a vehicle for DNA, it’s a messenger for long-term health risks. And we’re only beginning to scratch the surface of what it can tell us.
Here’s the good news for men:
Roughly 40% of male infertility cases are lifestyle-driven and reversible. Poor test results aren’t the end of the road. They’re a wake-up call: better sleep, cleaner diet, quitting smoking, managing stress can all add up towards better fertility.
Also, here’s something most men don’t know: they have cycles too. Sperm quality fluctuates over time. Just like ovulation, men have windows of peak fertility.
I love seeing this reflected in a recent social media trend: men preparing for conception alongside their partners. Sharing workout routines, healthier meals, supplements – it’s basic stuff, but it signals a shift in mindset. We’re finally moving past the 18th century superstition that fertility is solely a woman’s burden.
So, dear ladies: if you’re preparing for pregnancy, don’t go it alone. Ask your partners to meet you halfway. Their health matters just as much as yours, sometimes more than they realize.
Share the health insights on what illumicell AI analysis can show.
We’re all familiar with urine tests, right? illumicell AI’s cell scanner allows for real-time testing of bodily fluids – urine, semen, blood, cerebrospinal fluid – at any doctor’s office without going to a lab. It’s called “point of care” – doing it anywhere, quickly, without waiting for results for days.
Our first system, LuceDx, turns a single sperm sample into a real-time health dashboard that is 98% more accurate, 50 times faster and 20 times cheaper than current lab tests.
50% of the US population live in “fertility deserts”. This means that for any fertility advice, diagnosis or treatment they’d have to make travel arrangements to clinics on the East or West Coasts. Throughout the US there are only about 500 such clinics – while 1 in 6 couples experience infertility. For millions, getting tested means navigating long wait times, high costs and cross-state travel – barriers that delay care and worsen outcomes.
Meanwhile, there are about 250,000 doctors suited to consult on fertility across the country – in your county, your neighbourhood, maybe just 1h away from your home.
The idea behind LuceDx is to work with fertility clinics and also unlock the logistical benefits of running these tests in any OB-GYN, Urology or Primary Care Practitioner office. We’re decentralising male fertility testing to make it accessible and affordable for those 18% who struggle with infertility and don’t have the means to travel just to test.
In the US, OB-GYNs are the de facto gatekeepers of male fertility. It’s usually the woman who first sees a doctor, anxious about not conceiving. The OB-GYN asks a few standard questions, then recommends fertility diagnostics – for both partners.
And here’s where it gets twisted.
As women, we’re conditioned from a young age to track and manage our fertility. We deal with pain, irregular cycles, even depression. So when we’re told to take tests, we comply. It’s normal.
But it’s not that simple for men.
While interviewing fertility clinics for illumicell AI, we heard it repeatedly: men delay testing or don’t show up at all. We brushed it off… until we launched our first study. Based on clinic capacity, we planned for 10 male participants per week. But two months in, we hadn’t even reached 50 samples. Men skipped appointments, ignored protocols or ghosted entirely, leaving receptionists to chase them for weeks.
Now imagine being the woman in that scenario. She’s desperate, ready to act, carrying the emotional burden alone. And because she can’t wait any longer, she starts treatment without her partner.
It’s no surprise that up to 25% of couples in US fertility clinics begin treatment without testing sperm. It’s a medical blindspot that puts women at serious risk.
Now imagine a different scenario: when a woman visits her OB-GYN, she brings her partner’s sperm sample with her. The OB-GYN uses LuceDx to analyze it on the spot. In minutes, they can assess key fertility parameters and determine the right next step. What used to take weeks or months – missed appointments, lab delays, partner hesitation – can now happen in a single visit. And in fertility, time matters: earlier detection means faster intervention, less emotional strain and better outcomes for both partners.
Beyond standard male fertility metrics like count, movement and shape, our tech provides a “3D view” of each sample, capturing significantly more information than a traditional lab microscope. Our AI continuously learns from every new scan, enriching our dataset and enabling context-aware interpretation. As we expand to integrate data from sperm, urine, blood and other fluids, we unlock a much broader vision: using cell-level diagnostics not just for individual’s health, but for populations.
A year later, we started our first study with a fertility clinic. Our tech and clinical teams made a plan – based on the clinic’s capacity, we expected ten male patients a week on average. But two months later, we still couldn’t gather 50 sperm samples. The delays were beyond us – men would forget to adhere to the rules, fill out paperwork or simply did not show up, making receptionists chase them for weeks.
Can you imagine what this means to a woman? She is desperate, she feels the responsibility and she cannot wait for her partner to man up. She goes into the fertility treatment without waiting for him.
In fact, about 25% of the couples undergoing fertility treatments in the US do not test sperm. This shocking statistic leaves women at huge risk.
The way payments flow in the US healthcare system hardly rewards routine preventive care. This is where illumicell AI comes in. Over the long term, we’re enabling clinicians to monitor systemic health continuously, proactively, and with data to spare.
What role does AI play in your solution?
Traditional semen analysis is slow, expensive and highly subjective.
Today’s process relies on a highly trained technician in a lab, squinting through a tiny eyepiece of a complex, expensive microscope to evaluate sperm count, movements and shape. It’s a painstaking task that takes 15 to 60 minutes and only covers a tiny, narrow field. Worse, it’s deeply human: the results can vary depending on the technician’s training, experience and even their energy levels at that moment.
illumicell AI brings clarity and scale to what was once guesswork.
Our system captures a vastly wider field of view than any microscope eyepiece, at multiple layers, analyzing thousands of cells at once and generating instant, objective metrics. And because each scan feeds back into our growing dataset, illumicell AI continuously learns – improving predictions for fertility outcomes and broader health indicators over time.
It is like navigating with a folded paper map – you only see a small section and it’s easy to miss the bigger picture.
illumicell AI is a switch to GPS. It doesn’t just show you where you are. It learns, updates in real-time, uncovers new routes and destinations you didn’t even know to look for. With every scan, it adds context, building a dynamic map of fertility and its link to broader health.
illumicell AI’s core products and features.
illumicell AI delivers AI-powered fluid analysis at the point-of-care – which means cellular scans can be performed at any doctor’s office, and not just specialized labs.
While we can scan any cells in fluid (such as urine or cerebrospinal fluid), our first application in sperm analysis offers 98% accuracy, 50x faster results and 20x lower cost than today’s standard solutions.
This is a game-changer because sperm testing is still mostly manual: technicians count and assess by eye, making this a very subjective test. On top of that, few clinics have the equipment and expertise, so patients often wait weeks just to get tested and sometimes longer for results. As a result, fertility diagnostics and treatments remain out of reach for most patients.
At the core is our proprietary “cell scanner,” a high-resolution imaging module that captures cellular detail in real time and creates a 3D visualization of it. Paired with our AI, it enables precise, contextual analysis at unprecedented speed and scale.
This technology is central to unlocking future applications in semen analysis. Research shows that sperm health is linked to certain cancers, cardiovascular disease, diabetes risk, pregnancy outcomes – and even longevity.
Yet today, these insights are largely ignored. Not because they don’t matter, but because the technology hasn’t existed to access them.
With our platform, we envision a future where sperm becomes a routine biomarker – one simple sample offering a window into overall health, enabling continuous tracking and empowering men and couples to live healthier, longer lives.
What is your vision for the future?
We are building the world’s largest biofluid dataset.
How many times have you gone from one doctor to another, trying to understand why if your bloodwork is “normal” you still feel off? Staring at pages of test results, watching your doctor’s face for clues, trying to decode what their raised eyebrow might mean, panicking. The numbers say you’re fine, but your body says otherwise. And quite often, your doctor doesn’t have the answer.
That’s the flaw in today’s healthcare: disconnected data, surface-level snapshots, no context. We’re building a system that connects data from sperm, urine, blood and other biofluids into a dynamic, learning model that sees the full picture. We envision using this data to give doctors the context they need to make faster, more accurate decisions for their patients.
For consumer health businesses like wearables and apps, our technology enables smarter, more personalized products. I’m a huge fan of OURA x Natural Cycles recent collaboration: the Oura Ring tracks women’s overnight temperature trends, while Natural Cycles digital birth control uses body temperature for natural pregnancy planning and prevention. These kinds of data-driven partnerships ultimately lead to more accurate, accessible and empowering tools for consumers.
Our data can also mean understanding health trends at a population level, and potentially avoiding another pandemic that locked billions of people inside their homes while their loved ones died.
I’m excited about the future of health powered by AI, because health isn’t just numbers, paperwork or stress; it’s a pattern we must decode to benefit everyone.
