Sky is the limit for health benefits of gut sampling robot pill

A robotic pill that can sample microorganisms in the guts of humans or animals should help with better health diagnoses.

Muhammad Rehan of Massey University is an electronic engineer and roboticist who started working on a PhD in mechatronics engineering in 2018.

He wanted to develop a tool to sample gut microorganisms that can provide information about nutrition and health.

Now that he has submitted his dissertation, he is working on a prototype robotic capsule, the size of a large pill, and submitting it to Massey’s ethics committee.

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The device would be swallowed and travel along the gut, collecting samples from places of interest. The capsule would be recovered from the stool.

The robot is equipped with a sample collection mechanism, a storage chamber to protect the samples, an electronic device to trigger the process at a target location, and a battery.

“In the human gut we have a huge population of microorganisms [and] they have different roles and attributes and functions,” said Rehan.

By being able to inspect the microorganisms, researchers can see how they reacted and the difference between healthy and unhealthy ones, he said.

“These microorganisms can act as a biomarker and you can use it for early diagnosis of things like cancer and diabetes.”

Normally, the microorganisms did things like absorb nutrients or stop pathogens.

Rehan said the way microorganisms should now be seen was through an endoscope camera on a tube or in fecal matter, or for people to notice the symptoms of conditions such as Crohn’s disease or celiac disease.

“We need a method with which we can measure them precisely.”

He said that if all the microorganisms were removed from the body and brought together, it would weigh about 2 kg.

“There are trillions. They are very small, you cannot see them and you have to look in a microscope.”

They started testing the capsule in a gut simulator machine and tested it in dogs. Rehan said it wouldn’t hurt the dogs.

The capsules weigh 2 to 3 grams.

“In research and development, the sky is the limit.”

Rehan’s work on the project has been recognized and he is a finalist in the momentum student-entrepreneur category in the KiwiNet Research Commercialization Awards.

The awards celebrate scientific discoveries successfully commercialized at New Zealand universities, Crown Research Institutes and research organizations.