The Boston-based medical device startup joined the IPA World Congress + Probiota 2026 conference (Feb. 11-13) as one of three ‘Probiota Pioneer’ competition winners.
Delivering an on-stage presentation alongside fellow winners Totality Biosciences and Luvbiotics, Watson told delegates about Microvitality’s ingestible capsules which can capture all-important data from the small intestine, a traditional blind spot in the gut health industry.
She explained the hardware and processing service has been tested in a population of patients with functional gastrointestinal disorders.
“The standard of care is failing patients due to diagnostic limitations,” she said. “Stool testing showing large intestine health is not a great representation of upper GI and breath testing generally results in low accuracy. Some patients may undergo costly endoscopies the wait times are eight months plus, and they are thousands of dollars.”
Small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), which can lead to symptoms like abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, weight loss, and malnutrition, impacts an estimated one in four adults globally and is on the rise, largely due to food processing systems and our overuse of antibiotics, Watson said.
The condition is also twice as prevalent in females, “so we think of this as a female health crisis”, she added.
Microvitality tests directly from the small GI with an ingestible capsule which travels to the small intestine, self-seals and is passed in a natural bowel movement over a bowl, for collection.
One of the company’s USPs over other similar technologies on the market is the smaller capsule size available, allowing for use in paedetrics.
The startup’s business plan is primarily to supply hospitals, ensuring access for patients who are most in need of a 360 degree study of gut health.
The second arm of the business model is to provide the hardware and service as an investigational product. Watson said researchers working with both human and animal samples can get access to this essential tool.
She said: “My hypothesis and real belief is that the small intestine has been under researched so we are really only at the tip of the iceberg in what data we can collect.”
