Professionally printed version of Gut Check:The Microbiome Game available as a promotion for a limited time from Qiagen.

Fecal transplant? Plasmids? Nosocomial Infections? Microbiome? Whether you’re teaching microbiology or just interested in a fun, biologically correct game for family game night, Gut Check is your game. Available for a year or so as a PDF printable, Gut Check has been revised and as is available for purchase through MOBIO for a limited time. >UPDATED 5/6/21 – Pre-printed copies of Gut Check are offered as promotional material from Qiagen. Please see the PDF printable link if you would like to download and print your own copy!<

Gut Check: The Microbiome Game Overview

For the uninitiated  uncolonized, Gut Check is a board game about the microbes living in your gut and how different life events affect the microbes and your health. I reviewed the game in 2015, so check that post for details. In summary, players start with a positive gut score and attempt to build their beneficial microbiome and reap its benefits while avoiding antibiotics and pathogens. Events in the game include everything from bus trips and going to work sick to eating veggie-filled pizza and synthesizing vitamins. Antibiotics and antibiotic resistance are recurring issues throughout the game. After antibiotic use, lateral gene transfer allows antibiotic resistance and nosocomial (hospital-acquired) infections to spread. The remedy? Playing game creator, David Coil’s favorite card – a fecal transplant – on yourself. Playing Gut Check would be the only time you’ll hear microbiome scientists recommend a DIY fecal transplant. I adore this game because not only is it about the gut microbiome, but it’s scientifically accurate, fun to play, and a great way to learn about microbes.

Initial Colonization of the Idea

David Coil, a lead scientist in Jonathan Eisen’s lab at U.C.Davis, is the genius behind the game. A microbiome scientist, educator, gamer, and dad, David was uniquely positioned to develop such an amazing science-based game. He naturally understood how to balance the demands of making a strategy-based game fun and challenging, while keeping the biology lessons intact. “There are a lot of elements that go into a working and balanced game, but in this case, they also had to fit with what we know of the human microbiome. There are things that would have made biological sense but would ruin the game and there were elements that would have been great for the game but made no biological sense.” David also wanted Gut Check to be something that anyone could play, enjoy, and learn from.

Gut Check actually grew out of the Eisen lab’s Microbes in Space/Project MERCCURI citizen science project. David was creating microbe “trading cards” to give out during public events. Another lab member suggested that he gamify the cards. Ever excited to find new ways to communicate microbiome science, Jonathan Eisen, quickly supported the idea of a microbiome game. Still, David double-checked with his boss, “I just want to be clear, in front of multiple witnesses, that you want me to spend time at work designing a microbiome board game”, Jonathan said “yes” and the rest is history.”

Marvelous Microbiology Education Tool

Since that time, Gut Check has been played and play-tested in labs all over the world, at scientific meetings, citizen science events, lab meetings, and homes. MOBIO’s research and development scientists, technical support, and marketing group had great fun playing and help refine the game and game instructions for the first commercial printing.

David watched many of the matches and fondly remembers one person saving up all of the fecal transplants and killing their opponent in one turn by forcing them to have repeated transplants. “That wasn’t exactly what I had in mind so now you can only play that card on yourself.”, says Coil. His 9-year-old’s favorite move is playing a pathogen on herself and then going on a Bus Trip. 

My oldest, Jac (then 6), woke me up this morning wanting to play Gut Check. I didn’t make it past start for the first 20 minutes of the game because she kept playing pathogens or killing my beneficials off with antibiotics! Jac built up a heck of a gut microbiome that could feed on dairy, grain, and plants and propelled her to the finish line. I’m SO reminding her of those beneficials at lunch. She also noticed how even the drawing of the pizza card was filled with veggies. In updating this post, I realized “little” (7) Emily hasn’t played this at all! oops. Things have been rather crazy. I’ll fix that tonight. She does need some reminders about feeding her microbes!

I’m so thrilled that in 2021 Qiagen has reprinted the GutCheck and is giving it away for promotions! The first commercial printing of Gut Check was by MOBIO. At the time, MOBIO was the perfect company to produce Gut Check. MOBIO’s DNA/RNA extraction kits propelled microbiome research with their unique extraction techniques and inhibitor clean-up reagents. The inhibitor clean-up step is so important when you’re extracting DNA/RNA from poop! Without MOBIO ’s extraction techniques, extracting DNA from poop often yielded only crappy results. Since that first printing, MOBIO was bought by Qiagen – another leader in DNA/RNA extraction kits. Qiagen acquired a great game along with inhibitor removal technology! What a deal.

In 2016 when Coil approached MOBIO about printing the game, Heather Martinez, associate marketing director, was excited at the opportunity to expand microbiome education in a fun way. MOBIO took on the complication and expense of producing the game and rewriting the instructions. A former MOBIO employee was hired to re-do the illustrations. MOBIO also developed a series of videos about the game featuring David Coil in his “Ask me about fecal transplants” t-shirt. The first video gives basic game setup.

I cannot recommend Gut Check more highly for teaching about the microbiome. I’d love to see a copy of it in every 6-12 and undergrad classrooms. If you’d like a copy – register for information on Qiagen’s promotions or follow their social media. You can purchase a copy through MOBIO for $20, which includes ground shipping within the U.S. Contact them for international shipping options. It is available 9/19/16. Follow the hashtag #themicrobiomegame for more fun.

Disclosure – I received a complimentary copy of Gut Check, but receive no other compensation from MOBIO or the creators of Gut Check.