My clinical and research efforts continue to be centered around the treatment and understanding the pathogenesis of urinary stone disease. I have recently identified zinc as a critical factor in the early mineralization process. We utilized the synchrotron at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories to identify non-trace amounts of zinc in Randall plaques (early human urinary stones) and in our recent Drosophila fly model. By knocking out specific zinc transporters in our first fruit fly model we were able to demonstrate that stone development dramatically decreases.