(Raluca Schachter) Urinary tract infections are among the most common diseases, affecting more than half of all women at some point in life and repeatedly, 25 percent of them. The idea that the urinary tract is a sterile environment has been successfully challenged with the help of technological advances, including culture-independent techniques (qPCR). We now know that urine is not sterile, even in the absence of a clinically relevant infection, and that the entire urinary tract is home to microorganisms, with each unique urinary microbial community.