A remarkable mouse model of CKD has been established that circumvents systemic toxicity and surgical interventions and mimics progressive glomerular disease by the generation of an inducible podocyte-specific ablation of an essential endogenous molecule, the chromatin structure regulator CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF), which leads to rapid podocyte loss in iCTCFpod−/− mice. The gene discussed is CTCF; the disease is glomerular disorder.