Many bacterial-linked illnesses, such as inflammatory bowel disease or colorectal cancer, are associated with an overgrowth of gut bacteria thought to be bad actors. But when researchers used a machine learning algorithm to predict the density of microbes — called microbial load, from their gut microbiomes, they found that changes in microbial load, rather than the disease, could be a driver behind the presence of disease-associated microbial species. 

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