At age 14, Gisela Delgado felt unwell. She thought she had the flu, but when she noticed blood in her urine, she rushed to the emergency room.1
Six months later, in 1994, she was diagnosed with IgA nephropathy (IgAN), a kidney disease in which the body’s immune system attacks and slowly destroys the kidneys. There were no approved therapies for the disease. In the coming years, Delgado would lose weight and energy, and her quality of life would decline. Within 25 years, her doctors told her, her kidneys would probably fail.
“It was my first year of high school. I …