When UNSW Associate Professor Shafagh Waters explains cystic fibrosis (CF) to the children she works with, she asks them to imagine what is happening inside their own bodies. “I tell them to picture an airport,” she says. “There’s a gate at the surface of every cell. It’s meant to open so water and salts can flow through—just like planes leaving a gate. In cystic fibrosis, that gate might be stuck closed, built in the wrong place, or it could be so unstable that it falls apart as soon as it forms.”
This article was originally published on MedicalXpress.com
