design: The qFit1 study examines the effects of sample handling on the taxonomic abundance observed in human gut microbiome samples extracted from FITs. Stool samples collected in FIT cartridges (EXTEL HEMO-AUTO MC) were processed using varying amount of FIT buffer containing suspended faecal sample.Taxonomic abundances observed after each of these protocols was compared with each other, and with those of samples collected with the standard method. The standard method consists of homogenising 5g of stool in 10ml of PBS/30% glycerol using gentleMACS; 0.45ml of homogenate is used for DNA extraction for all samples.