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Researchers from the Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology at the Washington University School of Medicine took stool samples from four sets of 20- or 30-something twins, each comprising one lean sister and one obese sister. The scientists then implanted bits of the samples into the intestines of lab mice, in a process called fecal transplantation. Though we think of feces as pure waste, to a scientist it can be a treasure trove of bacteria and chemicals that live in the gut and play important roles in a wide range of body functions from digestion to inflammation and obesity.

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Next, the research team took bacterial cultures from the poop samples, grew them in petri dishes and put them into a new set of healthy mice. They housed mice with the obesity bacteria in cages with lean-bacteria-carrying mice and waited. Mice are coprophagic, which is the clinical way of saying that they eat each other's poop. The mice did as mice do, and the researchers noticed a remarkable trend. The mice that should have gained fat didn't. Analysis of their gut microbiota after several days showed that it looked a lot like that of their lean-cultured cage-mates. Effectively, being skinny was contagious.

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"Together, these results illustrate how a diet high in saturated fats and low in fruits and vegetables can select against human gut bacteria taxa associated with leanness," the authors write. "…The stage is set for studies designed to determine which culturable components of a given person's gut community are responsible [for body composition and metabolism]." From here, they posit that scientists may be able to figure out how to manufacture a treatment that doesn't require actual, physical feces.

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Fecal transplants are still considered experimental and most doctors are wary of performing them. That's why when he suggests fecal transplants to patients with ulcerative colitis, multiple sclerosis or cancer, Wald gives them an instructional pamphlet on how to do your own transpoosion at home. "Generally patients have to get poop from a relative, because genes that are closer might be a better fit. Research shows that stool from any seemingly healthy person works. You can even get it from a close friend, as disgusting as that sounds." Disgusting indeed. But Wald swears that in his experience he can't think of a single time a patient didn't see improvement.

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