When most people think about donating body parts to science or medicine, they might think of life-saving donations of organs, tissues or blood. But you can also donate your poo.

The idea is to use it for poo transplants, otherwise known as faecal microbiota transplantation. That’s when poo products made from healthy donor poo are transplanted into another person to improve their health.

Scientists like myself rely on poo donations to run clinical trials into this type of research. Some clinics rely on poo donations to treat patients.

To put it bluntly, we rely on people having a shit for science or medicine.

Here’s how to get involved and become a poo donor.

Think of a poo donation as donating a different type of “organ”, your gut microbiome. This is the community of microbes in your gut responsible for critical functions in the body, including shaping your immune system and how you metabolise food.

We’re learning more about the gut microbiome all the time. This includes identifying functions important to our health and discovering potential new antimicrobial products derived from poo.

To get involved with this type of science, you’d need to........

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