The gastroenterology department on the ninth floor of the new building at the 95-year-old King Edward Memorial Hospital in Mumbai’s Parel is no different from the rest of the hospital — crowded, with relatives of patients waiting in corridors, and often making a bed for themselves on the staircase. A room on the floor serves as the office of Shobna Bhatia, head of the department, an old hand at research on probiotics and experts on the use of human gut bacteria in the treatment of intestinal diseases. Her current research is focused on finding alternatives to the usual medicines that deal with problems related to the human digestive system. Her team is researching how the source of discomfort in the tummy might actually lie in the brain (think tummy aches before exams). Bhatia elucidates the problems she faces on the use of probiotics, live cultures of human gut bacteria, and bacterial spores, in treatment.