From: mha23x@gmail.com   
      
   I transplanted someone else's microbiome in(on)to my body and it was so   
   surreal - Part I, by Josiah Zayner, Ph.D.   
      
   *****   
      
   Science, Art, Beauty by Josiah Zayner, Ph.D.    
      
      
   MAY    
   6    
      
      
   I transplanted someone else's microbiome in(on)to my body and it was so   
   surreal - Part I    
      
   This is the story of a Speculative Science experiment. The data and results   
   are meant to be a guide and not meant to withstand rigorous peer review   
   (though I did my best to be as rigorous as possible). The experiment has an   
   'N' of 1, as Scientists say,    
   meaning it was only done once on one person and therefore the results cannot   
   be statistically generalized.    
      
   This is a story of how I challenged myself mentally, physically and   
   intellectually to push the boundaries of what I think human beings are capable   
   of in terms of Science exploration.    
        
   And this is story of me, about my need for self-reliance after all the shit I   
   have been through in my life, my hope to inspire others and my reckless   
   pursuit of Science Fiction.    
      
   This is a long story.    
      
      
   And it starts with medical issues.    
      
   I have suffered from gastrointenstinal problems, so do other members of my   
   family. In college I began to have serious GI issues and an MD told me that it   
   might be IBS. This was around 2004 there was no test for IBS. Ever since then   
   when I talk to a GP I    
   have received the generic MD advice, "Don't be stressed, eat healthy,   
   exercise." all to no avail. I pooped alot or felt like I had to, maybe 3+   
   times a day on a normal day. I always thought it was just something I needed   
   to deal with until it became much    
   worse in the past few years. I was ovo-vegan for a year, vegetarian for the   
   preceding year. My diet in the past 15 years has fluctuated between mostly   
   chicken nuggets (first year of graduate school) to mostly vegetarian (near the   
   end of graduate school).    
   My diet now consists mostly of chicken, rice and vegetables.    
      
      
   Post-nasal drip is brutal. I have had it for about 5 years. I finally went and   
   was tested for allergies and such 6 months ago and the tests came back   
   negative. Spent thousands of dollars in deductibles, tried a bunch of   
   different medication anyway that    
   the MD was prescribing. They kept giving me stronger and stronger nasal   
   sprays, none worked (LOL). Then I had a CT scan for polyps but the MDs   
   responses were not clear on the results, really vague about maybe something.      
      
   You may not know or maybe you do but I suffer from Bipolar Disorder. It's   
   actually not much like what you see in the movies or TV much more boring and   
   painful. Days or even a week without sleep, depression, anxiety and a hint of   
   crazy. Medication with    
   rough side effects(I didn't even know akathisia was a thing or how painful it   
   could be, until I took seroquel). MDs who want to charge you $200+ per session   
   and all seem disinterested in really helping you. A therapist who would fall   
   asleep during our    
   early morning sessions, a therapist who would answer emails during our   
   sessions, a therapists who thought I was his rival and would try and get the   
   group against me during sessions (super fucked up). Mental illnesses are   
   diseases that giving hugs or    
   being loving doesn't fix.    
      
   Great Odin, I sound like a mess.    
      
   Besides these things I would probably be considered by many to be healthy.   
   Resting pulse rate of ~60 bpm, very little sugar with small amounts of fat in   
   my diet. Weight around 170 lbs at the time of the experiment. My exercising   
   has fluctuated, in the    
   past 15 years but I have probably averaged 1-2 days a week of rock climbing or   
   soccer(some weeks 5, some weeks none).      
      
      
      
   Gastrointenstinal issues, obesity and many other things have been linked or   
   suggested to be linked to each individuals microbiome. There have even been   
   suggestions that your microbiome can influence your mood or play a role in   
   mental illness(don't know    
   enough to agree and to link any of those papers) Interestingly, the Fecal   
   Microbiota Transplant(FMT) company(organization?) Open Biome screens for   
   mental health issues in potential donors!    
      
   So it began with the question, Could a microbiome transplant cure me of some   
   or all the things that ail me?    
      
   In May 2015, I wrote an article titled The Future of Microbiome Forensics   
   tldr; it discussed recent advances in using the human microbiome as a tool to   
   identify individuals. Being a hacker it started me thinking about how one   
   could obfuscate the    
   microbiome or maybe even replace their own microbiome with someone else's to   
   circumvent the ability of people to use the microbiome for surveillance.    
      
   I applied for an Art grant to explore these things because no one would fund a   
   Science grant to do this stuff. Check the Video part of the application out   
   here I didn't, however, receive the grant.    
      
   I wanted to replace my whole microbiome. Replace my mouth and nasal bacteria   
   with a healthy donors and maybe cure my post nasal drip. Replace my GI   
   bacteria and maybe cure my GI illness, and replace my skin bacteria because we   
   are a whole ecosystem and    
   and maybe all the bacteria contribute to mental health and maybe I would   
   reinfect myself with my old bacteria.    
      
   I had to two reason to perform this experiment    
      
   1. Health    
   2. Is it possible to replace my whole microbiome    
      
   So the next question was, How to do it?    
      
   Obviously, I didn't just want to do the experiment and be like "Hmmm, I feel   
   better, #WINNER!". So, I needed a way to track how my body and mind function   
   on a daily basis to help me better understand how I am functioning. I created   
   a questionaire that    
   tracked the things I thought would be effected by the experiment, everything   
   from working out to sexual libido to caffeine and alcohol consumption. Check   
   out daily data here.    
      
   I also wanted to take samples that could have the bacteria in them sequenced   
   eventually using 16s metagenomic sequencing. List of samples taken over the   
   course of the experiment here    
      
   Then I needed to figure out how this thing worked. How do I store donor   
   samples? How do I inoculate myself with poop samples, from above or below?   
   What about skin inoculation, nasal inoculation, mouth?    
      
   I read up on some stuff and decided to create a short protocol.This document   
   also has a more detailed diary from during the experiment (but don't cheat and   
   read ahead).    
      
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)