Fecal Microbiota Transplantation Is Poised for a Makeover

With multiple microbiota therapeutics in the pipeline for recurrent Clostridium difficile infection, clinicians foresee a shift in treatment options for the condition.

| 9 min read
A person wearing a purple glove holds out a blue pill

Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
9:00
Share

ABOVE: A fecal microbiota transplant capsule filled by staff at OpenBiome
COURTESY OF OPENBIOME

Update (December 1, 2022): The US Food and Drug Administration announced yesterday that it has approved its first fecal microbiota product, Ferring Pharmaceuticals’ Rebyota, for prevention of recurrent C. difficile infection in adults.

Alexander Khoruts wishes we’d all stop using the F-word. In addition to its yucky connotations, the term “fecal transplant” is an inaccurate description of the procedure he helped pioneer, he argues, since “you can’t transplant feces.” Rather, it’s the intestinal microbiome that gets engrafted, says Khoruts, a gastroenterologist at the University of Minnesota who coauthored the first detailed how-to guide for the procedure. Accordingly, he says, he prefers the term “intestinal microbiota transplant.” As director of the university’s Microbiota Therapeutics Program, he regularly works with people who undergo the procedure, and “I’ve seen the patients really have a sigh of relief when you lose ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

The Scientist Logo
Receive full access to digital editions of The Scientist, as well as TS Digest, feature stories, more than 35 years of archives, and much more!
Already a member? Login Here

Keywords

Meet the Author

  • Shawna Williams

    Shawna was an editor at The Scientist from 2017 through 2022. She holds a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Colorado College and a graduate certificate and science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Published In

June 2021

The Bacterial Nanotubes Debate

The recently discovered structures are making waves in microbiology

Share
3D illustration of a gold lipid nanoparticle with pink nucleic acid inside of it. Purple and teal spikes stick out from the lipid bilayer representing polyethylene glycol.
February 2025, Issue 1

A Nanoparticle Delivery System for Gene Therapy

A reimagined lipid vehicle for nucleic acids could overcome the limitations of current vectors.

View this Issue
Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Lonza
An illustration of animal and tree silhouettes.

From Water Bears to Grizzly Bears: Unusual Animal Models

Taconic Biosciences
Sex Differences in Neurological Research

Sex Differences in Neurological Research

bit.bio logo
New Frontiers in Vaccine Development

New Frontiers in Vaccine Development

Sino

Products

Tecan Logo

Tecan introduces Veya: bringing digital, scalable automation to labs worldwide

Explore a Concise Guide to Optimizing Viral Transduction

A Visual Guide to Lentiviral Gene Delivery

Takara Bio
Inventia Life Science

Inventia Life Science Launches RASTRUM™ Allegro to Revolutionize High-Throughput 3D Cell Culture for Drug Discovery and Disease Research

An illustration of differently shaped viruses.

Detecting Novel Viruses Using a Comprehensive Enrichment Panel

Twist Bio