FAKE FAECES How to make a stool

摘要

The runny, cloudy substance, developed by Elaine Petrof, an infectious-disease researcher at Queen's University in Kingston, Canada, is one of the first prototypes of synthetic stool: a mixture of 33 microbes individually isolated from the faeces of a healthy donor and then recombined. Petrof chose the donor after a stringent screening protocol, selecting a woman who was infection- and parasite-free and clear of chronic diseases and drugs, and who had taken antibiotics only once in her life, long ago. For the microbe mix, Petrof chose a combination of beneficial bacteria and others known to support the overall microbial community, and threw the rest away. The chosen bacteria were grown in pure culture, then mixed together in saline solution at ratios that replicated their original proportions in the stool.