We’ve all had crappy jobs before, but nothing like this. There’s a company out there that is looking for healthy poop and they are willing to pay you $13,000 for a weekly supply.
OpenBiome is using healthy poop to treat people suffering from a bacterial infection called C. difficile. Since 2013, they’ve been helping people deal with C. difficile, which leaves its victims in severe gastrointestinal distress.
“By introducing healthy fecal matter into the gut of a patient (by way of endoscopy, nasal tubes, or swallowed capsules) doctors can abolish C. difficile for good. Finding a donor is tough business, and some patients grow so desperate that they treat themselves with fecal matter from friends and family. That’s what happened to a friend of OpenBiome’s founders, inspiring them to open up the first nationwide bank. So far they’ve shipped about 2,000 treatments to 185 hospitals around the country.”
However, don’t think that picking up an extra four figures a year is as easy as copping a squat. According to the company’s co-founder, Mark Smith, becoming a donor is harder than getting into MIT.
“Of the 1,000 or so people who have expressed interest, only four percent make it through the extensive medical questioning and stool testing.
“We get most of our donors to come in three or four times a week, which is pretty awesome. You’re usually helping three or four patients out with each sample, and we keep track of that and let you know.”
Currently, C. difficile is the only disease being treated in this way, but new research may lead to poop based treatments for obesity, inflammatory bowel disease, and even autism.