The participants - who have been earlier screened to confirm they have stomach problems affecting their daily activities, such as diarrhoea - would then be followed for six months and assessed to see whether their symptoms ease.
If the microbiome transfer was found to be helpful, it will be offered to the participants who received the placebo.
Liggins Institute lead investigator Professor Wayne Cutfield said the study was informed by work that began 15 years ago, exploring the importance of the gut microbiome for a wide range of outcomes.
“However, only now are we at the stage of conducting robust randomised controlled trials in humans,” he said.
“Up until now, our evidence has come from animal trials and associations. So, this is really important and has the potential to be hugely beneficial.”
Liggins was also researching whether microbiome transfer could be useful for people with obesity, obesity-related disorders and anorexia nervosa.
In one 2020 study, the researchers found the approach appeared to help a group of overweight teens living with metabolic syndrome.
Just as in that trial, the research team would take samples from healthy volunteers, process it to enrich for bacteria and then thoroughly enclose the bacteria in capsules.
The donors would then be screened in a similar way to blood donors to ensure there were no harmful viruses or organisms in their stools.
The microbiome bacteria would then be encapsulated in several cases of digestible coating, so they wouldn’t be digested in the mouth or throat, but when they reached the gut.
The capsules would be administered over two days at the university, with medical supervision, before later testing would be carried out later to see if there’d been changes in gut bacteria.
“The study aims to make people’s guts work better,” co-lead investigator Professor Justin O’Sullivan said.
“Having a gut that works well is really important for people, it helps them feel good and healthy overall.”
People can find more about the trial and how to take part here.
