From gut feelings to data assets: ethnographic explorations of the gut’s metabolic political economies

The paper contributes to ongoing discussions about the sociopolitical implications of microbiome research reflecting on the “metabolic political economy” of the gut and cautioning against overlooking the complex tensions and ambiguities inherent in the commercialization of microbial science. It investigates the multiple processes underlying the gut’s valuation practices in the context of interactions between academic research and a startup active in the field of wellness. We argue that over the last few decades, the (re)discovery of the gut and its microbiome as a symbiotic, ecological, sensing, and thinking organ has been appropriated and captured by a number of actors. Employing the working framework offered by the concept of “biovalue” and “assetization”, we focus on the wellness and digital health industry, their collaboration with academic research, and the resulting fragmentation of the gut’s valuation practices. Through the ethnographic exploration of a personalized nutrition startup based in the UK and its partnership with a research institution in Italy, we expose how gut microbiome knowledge production takes place at the intersection of multiple and complementary scientific, economic, and health-related values and expectations. Our study unveils a nuanced relationship between data, academic dynamics, and economic drivers, with data playing a determining role in the value acquisition of the gut, well beyond its progressive features. Critically, our analysis emphasizes the necessity to examine the sociopolitical implications and future health management scenarios resulting from the gut’s role as an asset.