A Pill Made from Poop, Universal Organs, Soothing Baby Pain

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Self-improvement, Science, Astronomy, Education

4.6 • 935 Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2022

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today, you’ll learn about an interesting way pills made from poop could help millions of people with allergies, how researchers edited the contents of a pair of donor lungs to better match the recipient, and how pain can affect a baby’s development and what parents can do about it.

Peanut allergies are being treated in an…interesting new way.

"Fecal transplant pills helped some peanut allergy sufferers in a small trial” by
- https://www.sciencenews.org/article/fecal-transplant-pills-peanut-allergy-clinical-trial-poop-bacteria
“Good early results with fecal microbiota therapy for peanut-allergic patients” by Bethany Tripp / Boston Children’s Hospital
- https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/944014
“Fecal matter pills used to treat peanut allergies in Boston study” by Heather Hegedus
- https://www.boston25news.com/news/fecal-matter-pills-used-to-treat-peanut-allergies-in-boston-study/875577919/
“Fecal Microbiota Transplant: We Know Its History, but Can We Predict Its Future?” by Todd H. Baron, MD (Mayo Clinic Proceedings)
- https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(13)00481-3/fulltext
Peanut allergy facts - NIH
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10200001/

Lungs can now be edited for a better organ donor match.

"Researchers Want to Create 'Universal Donor' Lungs” by Sara Harrison
- https://www.wired.com/story/researchers-want-to-create-universal-donor-lungs/
“Creating 'universal' transplant organs: New study moves us one step closer.” by Nicoletta Lanese
- https://www.livescience.com/universal-blood-type-transplant-lungs-study
"Scientists Say They've Found a Way to Create Universal Donor Lungs" by Ed Cara
- https://gizmodo.com/universal-donor-lungs-research-1848548951
“Researchers Investigate How to Make Donated Organs Compatible With Any Blood Type” by Meagan Drillinger
- https://www.healthline.com/health-news/researchers-investigate-how-to-make-donated-organs-compatible-with-any-blood-type
“In medical first, kidneys from gene-edited pig implanted into brain-dead patient” by Elizabeth Chuck
- https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/kidneys-gene-edited-pig-implanted-brain-dead-patient-rcna12928

Pain isn’t just physically bad for babies - it can stunt their development. Here’s how doctors are treating it.

"Doctors learned how to save premature infants’ lives. They forgot about pain." by Brian Resnick
- https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/22949159/nicu-babies-pain-treatments-podcast-unexplainable
“Skin-to-skin contact with a parent may reduce newborn babies’ brain response to pain” by Jason Goodyer
- https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/skin-to-skin-contact-with-a-parent-may-reduce-newborn-babies-brain-response-to-pain/
"What parents need to know about pain in newborns" by Claire McCarthy, MD
- https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/what-parents-need-to-know-about-pain-in-newborns-201601269076
“Miracle baby finally leaves NICU after 460 days” by Harper Robinson
- https://fox8.com/news/miracle-baby-finally-leaves-nicu-after-460-days/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Discovery.
0:09.0	Time flies when you're learning super cool stuff. I'm Nate.
0:12.0	And I'm Callie. If you're dropping in for
0:14.0	the first time welcome to curiosity where we aim to blow your mind by helping you grow
0:18.2	your mind. If you're a loyal listener, welcome back. Today you'll learn about an
0:22.4	interesting way pills made from poop could
0:24.8	help millions of people with allergies. How researchers edited the contents of a pair of
0:29.4	donor lungs to better match the recipient and how pain can affect a baby's development and
0:34.3	what parents can do about it. Without further ado, let's satisfy some curiosity.
0:38.6	Nate, I hope you brought your hand sanitizer, a newspaper, goggles, and a noise machine, because we're spending some time today in the bathroom.
0:47.0	I get the noise machine, Callie, but why do you need goggles in a bathroom?
0:51.0	I don't want that air in my eyes. Oh, you might be right. Well we might need a higher tolerance for that kind of stuff if we're going to get through this segment. Today I want to tell you about a revolution in allergy treatment that involves, well, taking poop pills.
1:05.0	Poop pills? Come on. I'm serious, poop pills. Folks with difficult food allergies may have
1:11.9	some relief on the horizon.
1:13.3	The promising results are from a small clinical trial conducted by allergist
1:16.8	Remo Rashid. Rashid and her colleagues at the Boston Children's Hospital
1:21.1	noticed something interesting about the stool samples of different babies.
1:24.0	This is one of those episodes where I'm like, do I even want to know? And the answer is yes.
1:29.0	The bacteria in your stool are the bacteria in your gut.
1:33.0	So a stool sample gives a window into the digestive system.
1:36.0	The sample's Rashid was looking at had some significant differences in the bacteria
1:40.0	depending on whether or not the baby had a food allergy.
	...

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