D. Krit Pongpirul, an assistant professor at the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, has developed a test kit to measure lactic acid bacteria, much like how the antigen rapid test kits work for detecting Covid-19.
The device will be commercialized in Thailand this year and the project counts Thai firm Montara Hospitality Group as an investor. The kit will be sold under the brand Probio.
The kits would allow users to know what types of probiotics that they really need. Each test kit will show four lines, corresponding to high, middle, low and control, to indicate the levels of the gut bacteria present in the microbiome.
Dr. Pongpirul has also developed a personalized probiotics dispenser machine that will be able to provide the specific types of probiotics required, giving supplementation a higher level of precision.
To use the kit, users will need to load their stool specimen into the test kit and then add buffer solution. Then wait 15 minutes for the result. The first strain of probiotics available for testing would be lactobacillus plantarum and the plan is to develop tests for all 23 strains approved by the Thai FDA for use in supplements.
