522: The Information Is In Poop
Dr. Sonia Grego, founder and CEO of Coprata and lead of Duke University's Smart Toilet Lab, discusses the engineering challenges of monitoring gut health through human waste. She explains how Coprata’s Microbiome Activity Tracker (MAT) kit uses colorimetric analysis via smartphone to assess gut health, while detailing the complex robotics required for their smart toilet prototype to isolate and analyze specimens. Grego also shares lessons from field-testing non-sewered sanitation systems in India and South Africa, highlighting the gap between academic prototypes and real-world deployment.