The team of UC Santa Barbara biochemist Thomas Weimbs published the results of a clinical study that gives the first indication that ketogenic diets may be safe and effective in patients with polycystic kidney disease (PKD). The idea to use such diets originated from a mouse experiment conducted several years ago that Weimbs was not expecting to work at the time. But it did. Giving less food to lab mice whose genomes were manipulated to give them PKD led to a vast improvement in their kidney disease. Afterwards, the Weimbs team went on to identify the mechanism of the stunning effect and found that it was the metabolic state of ketosis.