Over the years, researchers in the laboratory of Ömer Yilmaz have uncovered important clues into the connections between diet and cancer, with recent work focusing on the role of intestinal stem cells on tumor initiation under various dietary conditions. In a study published in Cell Stem Cell, the lab examines the impact of high fat diets on gut microbes and their interactions with both stem cells and immune cells. The findings suggest that such perturbations to the microbiome significantly dampen immune recognition of premalignant intestinal stem cells, leading to increased tumorigenesis.