Embedded 522: The Information Is In Poop
Mar 6, 2026
Sonia Grego, scientist and innovator who runs Duke's Smart Toilet Lab and founded Coprata, discusses using toilets and simple at-home tests to monitor gut health and detect outbreaks. She talks about engineering challenges of handling stool, field testing in diverse settings, privacy and prototype design for smart toilets, and why kits may come before fully integrated devices.
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Add Fiber And Track Its Effects
- Eat more fiber to improve gut health and long-term metabolic markers like cholesterol and blood sugar.
- Sonia Grego recommends simple habits like adding beans to salads and monitoring changes over time with tests.
Poop Is A High Value Health Signal
- Poop contains rich health information that can reveal gut microbiome status and dietary effects.
- Sonia Grego explains fecal pH and stool consistency are measurable biomarkers used by Coprata to track gut health outside clinics.
Sanitation Needs Decentralized Treatment At Source
- Half the world lacks safely managed sanitation, requiring on-site decentralized treatment solutions.
- Sonia explains centralized sewers are impractical in megacities like Mumbai, so household-level treatment mini-factories are a necessary but difficult engineering challenge.