University of Western Australia
UWA’s ‘Noisy Guts Project’ that uses acoustic sensing technology to detect gut disorders has been selected as ‘one to watch’ in the inaugural Nature Spinoff Prize Nature Research. The Spinoff Prize was established by Nature Research in partnership with Merck, a leading science and technology company, to showcase and celebrate global excellence in the commercialisation of research through the creation of spinoff companies.
The Noisy Guts project, headed by Nobel Laureate Professor Barry Marshall, could help avoid invasive colonoscopies. It works by the user wearing an acoustic belt that listens, records and analyses gut noises with the aim of faster and more effective diagnoses for chronic gut disorders.
After a competitive process from university spinoffs around the globe, the Noisy Guts Project was selected as one of 32 promising companies this year. Noisy Guts will be featured in a special liftout in Nature. The Noisy Guts Project has made great progress toward using monitoring common gut disorders such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome. The technology was spun out of UWA in November 2019.
Professor Barry Marshall said the research team was delighted to receive the prestigious prize.
“Chronic gut disorders such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome affect up to one in five Australians,” Professor Marshall said.
“Through this project developed at the Marshall Centre, we hope to commercialise technology to aid fast detection of gut disorders and empower patients to identify triggers that cause symptom flare-ups”.