Sitting on a possible panacea and working hard to get the tiny percent who qualify to stop flushing lifesaving medicine down the toilet.
Even though the overall tone of this report may be perceived as pessimistic, I want to start out with a sincere thank you to all of the people who have been willing to be stool donors. This includes dozens of college and professional athletes, including some recent Olympic athletes. We are working hard to get the few people who are the most likely to qualify to apply. Unfortunately, we still haven’t found the precise health & microbiome criteria we’re looking for in a donor. It's extremely unfortunate (and concerning) for everyone involved that high-quality donors are so rare; as it’s a window into the health of the population, and everyone benefits when we find a high-quality donor.
When I first started out searching for a stool donor I figured that people would be happy to give up something that has zero value to them but could possibly save someone's life.
