It’s a donation that most people flush away. That’s right — we’re talking about poo. We collect a poo from a healthy donor, process and test it, then give it to clinicians to transplant into a patient, called a faecal microbiota transplant (FMT). The aim is to relieve symptoms or cure a disease. In this case, we’re treating Clostridium difficile infections.

But, how does it work? Your digestive system, or gut, has millions of tiny living organisms and bacteria living in it. These are known as gut flora or gut microbiota. The types and numbers of organisms you have in your gut affects your health — whether for good or bad. The goal of a faecal microbiota transplant is to transfer good, healthy microbiota from a donor into someone whose current gut microbiota may be making them sick.

There’s a lot of research about FMTs happening around the world, and we’re really excited to be part of it. In the future, they might be able to treat more diseases like Crohn’s disease, or ulcerative colitis. But, there’s still a lot more to learn before we can get started. 

Your donation will help us set up this facility and provide product to researchers all across Australia.