Shanghai Medicilon Inc.

  So great a need for constipation relief, so few constipation remedies. If only the estimated 4 million Americans who suffer from constipation had more options, particularly since dietary interventions so often fail. Additional options, new research suggests, may finally be on their way, in the form of genetically engineered probiotics. According to researchers at the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine, synthetic bacteria may spur the transit of food through the  digestive system . The researchers add that synthetic bacteria may work better than generic probiotics, which don’t work for everyone because the gut microbiome – the community of bacteria found within the stomach and intestines – is unique to each person. The synthetic bacteria produced by the Mayo scientists are genetically engineered to produce large amounts of the chemical tryptamine. These bacteria, the Mayo scientists report, “accelerated gastrointestinal transit” in a  mouse model of constipat...