When Demetri Maxim was seven years old, his mother’s kidneys stopped working. She was put on dialysis, which meant that she had to go to the hospital four times a week to have her blood filtered by a machine since her own kidneys could no longer function independently.

Two years later, Maxim’s mother received a kidney transplant. Although the surgery was successful and allowed her to lead a relatively normal life, it wasn’t the end of his family’s struggle with kidney disease. It turned out that Maxim had inherited the disease, Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD), from her.

About one in seven Americans has Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), and about 10% of those CKD cases are due to a genetic condition. Maxim has been obsessed with finding a cure for himself and others ever since he was in h

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