One day , you might be able to name a gut disease by the color of your poop . researcher have developedbacteria that give rise a pigmentwhen sure molecules associated with colon rubor are detected , which then lapse out with your feces .
The workplace work up on previous research that was first conduct back in 2009 . Scientists at Cambridge Universitygenetically engineeredEscherichia colibacteria to detect certain molecule and then secrete particular pigments that are seeable to the raw eye . The paint genes were have from existing organisms and could produce a reach of people of colour , from blood-red to xanthous to violet .
In possibility , this could mean that the change bacteria could also be used to find toxins in water , for example , and then grow a pigment in response , even allowing hoi polloi to see what the concentration of that toxin might be . Their issue when it come to the gut , however , was how long the bacterium would be able to survive , restrain its use as a diagnostic pecker .
This late research , published inNature Biotechnology , seems to have establish a way around that . They created modifiedE. colithat can survive for up to six month inside the gut of shiner , greatly increasing its possible use in medicine . The team designed theE. coliso that it can feel a substance have sex as tetrathionate . This chemical is kick upstairs in affected role who haveulcerative colitis , a long - term term in which the Aspinwall and rectum are wake .
They then take healthy black eye , as well as mice that had inflammation similar to ulcerative colitis , and populate them with the engineeredE. coli . When the bacteria finds tetrathionate , it turns on a nerve tract that run to the production of a blue paint . The researchers then took the shit from the mice , isolated the bacteria , and grew them . In those mouse with inflammation , the normally blanched bacteria were now colour blue .
This experiment was simply a trial impression of concept that the proficiency work and can be modified . There are evidently limitations if it were to be used as a diagnostic tool , mainly that it still require someone in the lab to isolate and culture the bacterium from a patient ’s faeces .
However , this might not always need to be the case . The gene that cod for the blue pigment , for model , could be trade for one that produces fluorescent protein , mean that the affected role would be able to see for themselves if there are any upshot . They could even make a range of different bacteria that detect various molecules and acquire different colored pigments .
