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Cancers have long been known to arise due to environmental exposures such as unhealthy diet or smoking. Lately, the microbes living in and on our body have entered the stage as key players: while stomach cancer can be caused by a single bacterial species, Helicobacter pylori, the role that gut microbes play in the development of colorectal cancer – the third most common cancer worldwide – is less clear. To determine their influence, association studies aim to map how the microbes colonizing the gut of colorectal cancer patients are different from those that inhabit healthy subjects.