Three research teams working independently around the world have landed on the same discovery: A single molecular “handshake” inside our cells controls a family of inflammatory diseases, including one of the most common inherited fevers on Earth. The finding solved a decades-old puzzle for one family and led to a treatment that worked almost immediately.

It all revolves around Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF), the most common inherited autoinflammatory disease, which affects an estimated 1–2 in every 1,000 people in high-prevalence populations, including those of Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Armenian and Jewish ancestry. FMF begins in childhood, causing recurring fevers, painful rashes and joint pain.

For more than 20 years, one family lived with a mysterious illness that resembled FMF, but nothing doctors tried would cure it.