Bacteria colours your poop to diagnose illnesses

Diagnosing salmonella and cancer could soon be as easy as looking in the toilet thanks to a breakthrough by scientists.



A cheap, new disease monitoring systems allows patient to find out what ails them simply by checking the colour of their poop.



An experimental collaboration between scientists and designers working in synthetic biology has produced the new type of bacteria known as E chromi.

Thia cheap, new disease monitoring systems allows patient to find out what ails them simply by checking the colour of their poop

When the bacteria enters the gastrointestinal tract, they produce different colors, making diagnosis as simple as reading a colour chart like the one pictured

When the bacteria enters the gastrointestinal tract, they produce different colors, making diagnosis as simple as reading a colour chart.

A patient is given an E. Coli bacteria-engineered drink and once they go to the toilet they can match the poop against the colour-coded diseases, reports inhabitat.com.

A collaboration between scientists and designers working in synthetic biology has produced the new type of bacteria, pictured, known as E chromi

A patient is given an E. Coli bacteria-engineered drink, pictured, and once they go to the toilet they can match the poop against the colour-coded diseases

Royal College of Art graduates’ James King and Daisy Ginsberg, together with University of Cambridge’s iGEM 2009 Biology team, have come up with the new system, according to inhabitat.com



Ginsberg told inhabitat.com how the bacteria works: 'The patient ingests a drink, much like a pro-biotic shake, laced with the engineered E. coli.



'T he bacteria react with the enzymes, proteins, and other chemicals that are present in the gastrointestinal tract and turn different colors for different diseases, thus changing the color of the patient’s faeces.'

