SAHMRI’s researchers in Adelaide’s iconic cheesegrater building are working on critical health and medical issues including bowel cancer, which kills 5000 Australians each year.

Bowel cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in Australia – but it need not be.

If detected early, it is a disease that responds well to treatment. In addition, the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program provides free tests to detect bowel cancer in its early stages.

The problem is that less than half of eligible Australians take advantage of the program, principally because it involves them collecting and sending a sample of their own stool.

Associate Professor Susan Woods, the leader of the Gut Cancer Group at SAHMRI, implores people to take the potentially life-saving test, but understands why many are reticent.

“Poo is gross, I get it,” Woods said. “Currently, this test is the best defence we have so I want everyone to do it.

“But our research is steering us towards a future where it might no longer be necessary.”

Wood’s team has engineered bacteria, A. baylyi, to detect a mutated gene that is a known driver of bowel cancer.

“This study demonstrates how bacteria can be designed to detect specific DNA sequences to diagnose disease in hard-to-reach places,” she said.

“In the future we will detect and prevent many diseases, including bowel cancer, with cells, not drugs, and hopefully we’ll be able to replace the ‘poo test’ with a simpler blood test.”

SAHMRI is SA’s independent, not-for-profit health and medical research institute on North Terrace.

Researchers are searching for solutions to medical conditions that cause human suffering to find better ways to treat, heal and care for people worldwide.

Learn more about this and other SAHMRI breakthroughs at sahmri.org.au