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dna exclusive: Poop down the memory lane

"Each time we flush our excreta down the toilet, we flush down a mountain of data," said Yaniv Turgeman. The information can provide crucial insight into one's health, said the head of research and development of the project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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"Each time we flush our excreta down the toilet, we flush down a mountain of data," said Yaniv Turgeman. The information can provide crucial insight into one's health, said the head of research and development of the project at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Turgeman and his team arrived in the city on January 24 to work on a model of a smart toilet that will 'download' – a popular lingo among techies for toilet sessions – information from poop as the waste goes down the drain. The scientists will be racking their brains at health technology workshop on the IIT-B campus till January 31. A prototype is expected to be ready by next year.

"Smart toilets will analyse the flora in the gut that is excreted, with the help of sensors installed in the pot. These sensors will transmit data about useful and harmful micro-organisms that inhabit the body to the user and the doctor via a web platform or a mobile app," said 37-year-old Turgeman.

Of the trillions of cells in the human body, the ones in the intestine contain 100 times more genetic information. Bacteria help us digest foods we cannot absorb otherwise. They metabolize drugs we take or even create toxic byproducts in our body, said Turgeman.

With the help of smart toilets, Turgeman said, users will feel encouraged to lead a healthy lifestyle as well as maintain sanitation. "Analyzing gut information through excreta will also lead to early detection of diseases and continuous monitoring of chronic ailments like colon cancer by doctors."

Doctors believe the organisms in our intestine hold answers to crucial questions about human constitution and health. "For patients who have cancer of the colon or an inflammed bowel, study of the flora in human excreta becomes extremely useful. The human gut has many useful and harmful bacteria. At times, if the flora in the gut of a diseased person has been altered, to cure the person of the disease, cultured flora from another person's excreta is transferred through a procedure into the sick person's gut," said Dr RK Gupta, neuroradiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a mentor at the workshop.



Dr Gupta said that smart toilets will help patients suffering from gastrointestinal disorders consistently track changes in the nature of the microbes dwelling in their gut and relay the data to the doctor over the mobile app or web platform.

Turgeman expects that a prototype of the loo-turned-lab will be ready by next year for the use of doctors, paving way for mass production in later years. He got the idea when he was working on a project on automatic collection of samples from sewerage in Boston, and their analysis with the help of bio sensors.

"Through the data, prevalence of viral diseases and their load on communities can be understood better," said Turgeman, adding that water-borne diseases like diarrhoea, typhoid, gastroenteritis or viruses like polio, which spread through contact of fecal matter with drinking water, can be studied better.

Loo and behold

Turgeman's design of a smart toilet is the first and one of it's kind, which looks at analysing human waste and conduct an in-house molecular analysis of the gut bacteria for preventive and diagnostic applications in human health.

In Japan, Toto makes advanced toilets that currently provide at-home urine analysis. Also, the user enjoys a luxurious experience as the toilet lid lifts up automatically, the seat warms up and the user can control music to be played through a Bluetooth synced smartphone.

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