As unappealing as it sounds, transplants with fecal material from healthy donors help treat tough Clostridium difficile gastrointestinal infections. Researchers credit the treatment’s success to its ability to restore a healthy bacterial balance to the bowels, and new research has shown that the transplanted bacteria doesn’t just do its job and leave. The good fecal bacteria and its benefits can persist for years. Researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham developed a method that could detect minute differences in microbes, allowing them to tell which bacteria came from the donor and which was a part of the transplant recipient. These bacteria make up the gut microbiome — the community of bacteria, viruses, and fungi that live in the gut and help us digest nutrients and keep us regular. The study by first author Ranjit Kumar and colleagues was published online June 7 in npj Biofilms and Microbiomes. The researchers’ new method “will form the cornerstone of a personalized…more