For a disease afflicting 35.5 million people^[1] in the U.S., chronic kidney disease flies under the radar. Only half the people who have it are formally diagnosed^[2].

The consequences of advanced chronic kidney disease are severe. When these essential organs can no longer do their job^[3] of filtering waste products from the blood, patients need intensive medical interventions that gravely diminish their quality of life.

As an...

Nearly every modern^[1] medical treatment^[2] can be traced to research funded by the National Institutes of Health: from over-the-counter and prescription medications that treat high cholesterol^[3] and pain^[4] to protection from infectious diseases such as polio and smallpox^[5].

The remarkable successes of the decades-old partnership between biomedical research institutions and the federal government are so intertwined with daily life...