ne of my med ica l heroes
is Prof Barry Marshall of
t he Un iversit y of Wester n
Aust ra lia. We met i n t he
1990s when I made a documentary
about him and his colleague, Robin
Wa r ren. I created t he f ilm,Ulcer
Wars, because they had a great story
to tell: they had identified and grown
a species of bacteria they called
Helicobacter pyloriand had become
convinced that it was responsible
for the majority of cases of gastric
cancer and gastric ulcers.
As a film-maker, it appealed to me
that in the 1980s Barry had drank
from a beaker containingH. pylori.
He became ill and a biopsy of his
gut revealed that theH. pylorihad
indeed begun colonising his stomach
lining and the upper part of his small
intestine, causing inflammation, or
gastritis. He took antibiotics, his
symptoms improved and biopsies
confirmed theH. pylorihad gone.
When I madeUlcer Warsthere was
widespread scepticism about their
claims aboutH. pylori. That changed
when the pair won the Nobel Prize
in Physiology or Medicine in 2005. It
was thanks to Barry’s example that
I embraced my policy of on-screen
self-experimentation.
I caught up with Barry recently
a nd he showed me h is latest
project, which may again change
our understanding of a common gut
problem. His team is investigating is
irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). IBS is
incredibly common, affecting about
10 per cent of the world’s population.Symptoms include pain, bloating,
diarrhoea and constipation. There
is no simple, reliable test and many
people either go undiagnosed or are
dismissed as overly anxious.
So there is a lot of interest in a
test that Barry’s team is developing.
It uses a belt that is strapped to a
patient’s stomach, encasing a small,
sensitive microphone. The research
is called the Noisy Guts Project.
“We wanted to find a way to listen
to the rumblings and grumblings
of the gut, to identify patterns that
characterise chronic gut conditionsM I C H A E L
MOSLEY
Michael is a writer
and broadcaster,
who presentsTrust
Me, I’m A Doctor.His
latest book isThe
Fast 800(£8.99,
Short Books).Listen carefully, the gurgles
of a grumbling belly could be
a cry for helpGUT FEELINGS
COMMENT
like IBS,” Barry says. “We’re using
acoustic sensing technology that
was originally created to track the
munching sounds of termites.”
They recruited volunteers, some
with a diagnosis of IBS, others with
healthy digestive systems, and asked
them to wear the belt and have their
gut sounds recorded for two hours
post-fasting, and then for 40 minutes
after a standardised meal.
Their gut sounds were uploaded
into a computer that used machine-
lea r ning to ident if y dif ferences
between healt hy a nd un healt hy
guts. They then tested their system
on a similar range of people, this
time mixed up so the researchers
didn’t know their medical histories.
The system worked well, accurately
detecting IBS 87 per cent of the time,
with few false positives. The team
is now testing the system with large
numbers of patients before bringing
it to market.“We’re using
sensing technology
originally created to
track the munching
sounds of termites”
PORTRAIT: KATE COPELAND; ILLUSTRATION: VALERIA ALVAREZ
O