CORAL: A 3D Printed Ingestible Capsule to Sample Your Gut Microbiome

The gut microbiome is a complex ecosystem of bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites that resides in the intestines. Shaped by both diet and environment, each person’s microbiome is unique. This ecosystem interacts with the digestive, immune, nervous and endocrine systems, though many of these relationships remain only partially understood. To advance research in this area, a team from NYU Abu Dhabi has developed a 3D printed capsule known as CORAL (Cellularly Organized Repeating Lattice), designed to collect microbial samples from the small intestine as it travels through the digestive tract. This new tool aims to help researchers better understand how the gut microbiome influences overall health.

The NYU Abu Dhabi team wants to explore the small intestine’s microbiome because traditionally, gut microbiome studies have relied on fecal samples, which primarily represent microbes from the large intestine. This leaves the small intestine largely unexplored, despite it being the site of many crucial interactions between the body and microbes. The study’s co-author Hanan Mohammed explained, “The bacterial communities in the gut profoundly influence immunity, metabolism, aging, and overall health. CORAL’s potential lies in enabling earlier disease detection, tracking how therapies are working, and ultimately developing new microbiome-based treatments that restore balance where it’s lost.”

Conceptual design of the CORAL capsule for microbial sampling in the small intestine (left) and design and fabrication of CORAL capsules (right)

CORAL: Inspired by Marine Corals

The creators of the CORAL capsule took their inspiration from marine life. Made from inert resin, the capsule has a texture like marine corals, which support diverse microbial life thanks to their porous structure. These pores increase its surface area, allowing it to passively capture microbes. The research team therefore created a geometric triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) pattern, designed to trap bacteria, for CORAL. 3D printing was critical to achieving the design. The study notes: “Fabricating microscale TPMS-based structures is a challenge. However, recent advancements in additive manufacturing (3D printing) have enabled the production of intricate, self-supporting TPMS architectures at nanoscale resolutions.”