Citizen science projects welcome the participation of anyone in the discovery and sharing of scientific knowledge -- that way, research in a specific field can pull from data that was generated from the general public! All the data collected by the American Gut Project is de-identified and made public. This way, other researchers around the world can utilize American Gut data to make discoveries of their own by identifying microbiome trends and answering intriguing questions about the connection between our microbes and our health.

Why The Gut?

We want to understand the gut: How different lifestyles affect its composition, establish an understanding of what a "normal" gut might be, and how to link it to clinical applications!



All of our microbiomes vary from one another, with a specific subset of species of microbes that are influenced by how we live our lives and in turn, influence our health. By gathering as much data as possible on people's guts, we can provide the means to investigate associations between the gut and factors like diet, sleep patterns, disorders, to make potential connections. Microbiome research then can hopefully make its way into a clinical setting, which will allow for the prospect of innovative therapies, diagnostics, or informed advice for our health.