MSI PI Michael Sadowsky and collaborator Alexander Khoruts have developed and tested a treatment for a serious gut infection that is showing excellent results. The infection, Clostridium difficile, which affects about half a million people every year, is debilitating and sometimes fatal. The treatment, called fecal microbiota transplantation, has a greater than 95% cure rate and has been adopted by medical practitioners around the country.
An article about this research appears on the University news site: Curing a dangerous infection.
Read more about the U of M Microbiota Therapeutics Program.
Professor Sadowsky is the Director of the BioTechnology Institute and a professor in the Department of Soil, Water, and Climate. Some of the research for the fecal microbiota transplantation project uses MSI resources. Professor Khoruts is a professor of gastroenterology in the Medical School.