Singapore’s poop lab studies Asia’s gut health to treat more illnesses
- Amili, which stands for Asia microbiome library, was started so the region would have its own research and capability for stool transplants
- It aims to provide microbiomes for 200 to 300 transplants this year, studying trillions of bacteria, fungi and other microbes among donors, looking for healthy ones
Dr Jeremy Lim, co-founder of start-up Amili which operates the bank, described it as separating the fibre in poop from the “microbes in the soup that the microbes live in”, then putting the liquid in glycerol solution.
And why is two-year-old Amili storing this? For poop transplants, explained Lim, who is also an associate professor at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore.
The “milkshake” that Amili extracts is transplanted into the gut of the suitable patients using an endoscope. The good bacteria then “stick to the walls and they replicate, suppress the bad bacteria and support the good bacteria, and then the healthy balance of the microbiome is then restored”, said Lim.
Amili is a portmanteau for Asia microbiome library, and it was started so the region would have its own research and its own capability to do poop transplants. It studies the microbiome – trillions of bacteria, fungi and other microbes – living in Asia’s guts, looking for healthy donors whose poop can be distilled into the “milkshake” containing good bacteria from the gut that Lim said can save lives.
