New Tool Shows Geology behind Kidney Stone Crystallization

Medical researchers are poised to map the entire process of kidney stone formation for the first time, thanks to insights from an unlikely source: geology. Combining this framework with a suite of cutting-edge microscopic tools and a new device that grows kidney stones in the laboratory, they are developing novel ways to stop or slow down the stones’ growth.

Stone disease occurs when jagged mineral crystals form in urine within the kidney. This excruciating problem affects roughly one in 10 adults and is steadily rising, especially in women and adolescents. “It’s common, debilitating and costly, both to the health-care system as well as individuals. To top it off, it’s also recurrent—if you’ve had one, there’s about a 50 percent chance of having another soon,” says urologist Margaret Pearle, who treats stone disease at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and did not participate in the new research.

Geobiologist Bruce Fouke turned his microscope lens from coral reefs to kidney stones about a decade ago. Working with biologists and doctors at the Mayo Clinic and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he found that kidney stones form similarly to many other stones in nature: they partially dissolve and re-form many times rather than crystallizing all at once. “That’s when we realized that stones are quite dynamic and have phases where they’re dissolving, so maybe there’s a way to harness that dissolution phase and treat stones,” says Fouke’s collaborator Amy Krambeck, a urologist at Northwestern Medicine.

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