Listen, folks, we’ve got a situation here with a disease called cystinosis, alright? It’s a tough one, believe me, caused by some bad mutations in this gene called ctns. This gene, it’s supposed to help get rid of cystine in the cells, but when it doesn’t work, things go wrong, especially in the kidneys. The kidneys, they’re very important, tremendous organs, and in infants with this disease, they just fail. Not good.

So, we’ve got these incredible scientists, the best, and they’re using this amazing technology with human-induced pluripotent stem cells – that’s hiPSCs, very cutting-edge stuff. They took cells from a person with this disease, and also from a healthy person, and they turned them into these hiPSCs. And let me tell you, these cells, they can do anything, they can turn into any cell in the body – it’s fantastic.

Now, when they tried to make kidney cells from the normal hiPSCs, it was a huge success. They got these organoids, like mini-kidneys, with all the right parts, and they looked great, just perfect. But with the hiPSCs from the person with cystinosis, it wasn’t so great. They tried, but the organoids, they just weren’t as good. They had some of the right stuff, but they didn’t form properly. It’s sad, really.

It looks like there’s a problem with how these cells are supposed to turn into kidney cells. Maybe they’re also dying too soon – apoptosis, that’s cell death, a big word, but it’s important. So, we’ve got to figure this out, we’ve got to do more to understand this disease and beat it. We’re going to make kidneys great again, for everyone, especially these kids. It’s going to be tremendous.