I recently had to take a course of antibiotics and recognised how this process completely destroys my gut biome. I get one bad bacteria, and my only choice is to nuke all of the bacteria in my system, hoping I can eradicate it, and then re-build my internal biome over a period of time later.

But what if I want to keep my own bacteria? They’re a symbiotic part of me. The “good” bacteria in you are an essential component of a healthy body. Taking antibacterial drugs to kill a single infection is like chopping your hand off because you’ve got a broken fingernail. So what if we could “back up” our healthy biomes in some way. Find a way to build an incremental backup, so if you do need to reset, you don’t have to start from scratch.

There is a process called a “Fecal Microbiota Transplant” which allows for implanting bacteria recovered from a healthy donor individual to a patient. But that runs the risk of transferring infections from one patient to another and is usually used as a last resort to treat serious conditions.

It seems like the next logical step is to find some way to capture someone’s biome over a period of time, and allow them to recover from that. One of those fancy smart toilets might be able to do it. Is this a billion euro idea or just a load of crap? If anyone wants to give it a go and makes it big, save a few million for me.