This scientist mum is creating a blood test to predict postpartum depression risk during pregnancy

Having battled postpartum depression twice, biotech entrepreneur and neuroscientist Dr Clarissa Yates is developing a blood test she wishes had existed when she was pregnant – one that alerts women to their risk of the condition even before symptoms appear.

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Like any mother, Dr Clarissa Yates loves her three daughters fiercely. But the 38-year-old recalls the disturbing feeling of indifference she felt towards her second daughter after her birth.

“I remember wondering how come I didn’t feel any connection or bond. I almost did not feel like she was my child,” Dr Yates said.

That’s the first thing that comes to mind when Dr Yates recalls the three months after giving birth to her second child. Other than that, everything is a blur, she said – she slept through most of it.

“Even getting out of bed to shower was a very difficult thing,” the Singapore-born Australian citizen told CNA Women.

Dr Yates remembers a day when she literally could not get out of bed or leave her room. Her husband brought their then two-year-old toddler to their room to spend time with her.

“Usually, I’d try very hard to spend time with her. But that day, I said to her, ‘I can’t see you. I need you to go.’ As a two-year-old, of course, she didn’t understand. She was sad and wanted to know why. I think I’ll always feel guilty about that,” Dr Yates said.

That was when she knew something was deeply wrong. Dr Yates went to see a counsellor, who referred her to a general practitioner. The doctor diagnosed her with postpartum depression and prescribed antidepressants.

Piecing it together, she suspects that she might also have suffered from postpartum depression after giving birth to her eldest daughter. She recalled how feelings of resentment and sadness washed over her, stealing away any joy of motherhood.

“What really scared me was that I actually felt that maybe it’s better if I left her at home, go away and not come back,” she said.

To ensure that other mothers have more help than she did, Dr Yates founded Ketim Technologies, developing a blood test to predict the risk of postpartum depression. Those at high risk can then seek help earlier and set up a better support system.

The chief executive officer of the biotech startup has won four awards in Australia for her work, including the National Award for Excellence in Innovation at the 2025 iAwards, and the Women in Technology 2025 Future-Focused Business Achiever Award. 

The blood test is currently awaiting clinical trials. Dr Yates, whose daughters are 10, eight and two, hopes to bring the product to market in 2027.

A FRESH LOOK AT POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION

Postpartum depression is usually detected when mothers come forward to seek help or show severe symptoms. But many simply do not seek help, said Dr Yates.

“The onus is on the mother to say, ‘I have a problem’. They’d have to have that self-awareness,” she said.

“And most people won’t admit that they have a problem. As a mother, you feel like you’re supposed to feel happy, you are supposed to grit your teeth and do it just like our grandmothers and mothers have.”

Hence, Dr Yates wanted to design an affordable blood test that would enable all mothers to be screened for postnatal depression even before symptoms manifest. She designed her test to be administered at six months gestation, when mothers are doing other pregnancy-related tests such as for gestational diabetes.

Doctors need only draw an extra 10ml vial of blood, which will be sent to a centralised laboratory where plasma would be extracted. This plasma is then tested for 12 protein biomarkers that Dr Yates has identified as predictors of postpartum depression.

A PhD holder in neuroscience, Dr Yates found these novel biomarkers by working with a maternity hospital in Queensland last year. The hospital has a biobank with blood samples from several hundred pregnant women who also did a postnatal depression questionnaire after giving birth.

She spent A$50,000 (S$42,779) to profile the blood of 50 mothers and identify the 12 biomarkers related to postpartum depression. Her co-founder and chief scientific officer Maciej Trzaskowski then created an algorithm to use these biomarkers to predict which mothers would go on to develop postpartum depression with 91 per cent accuracy, Dr Yates said.

This blood test is designed to detect which women are at risk of postpartum depression, not diagnose it, she clarified. Families can then arrange for more support, and also seek diagnosis and treatment earlier should symptoms come up, she added.

The remaining variance of 9 per cent is likely due to biological predictors that have not yet been identified, as well as social factors such as support and sleep, she explained.

Dr Yates sold the home she shared with her husband to fund this initial study and is currently renting a home.

Since identifying the biomarkers and designing the blood test, Dr Yates has been travelling around the world, pitching her idea and raising capital for the next stage of product development. She has currently raised A$1.2 million (S$1,026,702), including investor funding and government-matching support.

This will fund clinical trials involving 1,000 mothers from Singapore, Australia, India, Europe, and possibly the United States, over the next year. After these trials, the company will file for regulatory approvals for the blood test, and seek certification in markets like Singapore, Europe and Australia, she said.

Dr Yates, who was born to a Eurasian mother and Chinese father explained that Singapore is one of the key markets where she hopes to make the blood test available. “Because I come from Singapore, coming back to my hometown and being able to make a difference is important to me,” she said.

MATERNAL MENTAL HEALTH NOT AN AFTERTHOUGHT

Through this test, Dr Yates hopes to make maternal mental health a routine part of pregnancy care.

“I think women deserve to know if they are likely to develop postpartum depression,” she said. “I wish I had known.”

Postpartum depression increases the risk of maternal suicide and in some women, symptoms can persist well beyond a year, Dr Yates noted.

Moreover, postpartum depression affects the mother-child bond. Untreated postpartum depression is also associated with a higher risk of neurodevelopmental challenges in children, such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), she added.

However, some still think that depression is a “decision you make”, Dr Yates said.

“For example, if you have cancer, a doctor is not going to say, ‘Why can’t you just not have cancer?’” she said.

However, with postpartum depression or depression in general, it is still common for people to try to persuade you not to feel that way, or reassure you that you are fine and will feel better tomorrow, she added.

An objective quantifiable test flips the script on postpartum depression so that more people realise that it is a medical condition with strong biological underpinnings, Dr Yates reasoned.

This will help to remove the stigma “because it helps you realise that you’re not over-imagining it, you’re not being too sensitive, which is the kind of things you hear,” she added.

After developing this test, Dr Yates hopes to explore other depressive disorders in women’s health, including depression symptoms in menopausal women and premenstrual dysphoric disorder, a more severe form of premenstrual syndrome that causes intense mood swings.

She also hopes to explore ways to address the issue of youth depression.

As a teenager, Dr Yates experienced symptoms of depression, though it was never diagnosed. “I felt very strong feelings of sadness. It feels like you have this darkness around you, and it doesn’t seem like anything makes a difference to it,” she said.

It took a long time for Dr Yates to find her way out of it. Now that she has, she has made it her mission to use her background in biotech and neuroscience to help others find answers and reduce the stigma surrounding mental health conditions.

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