MILWAUKEE — Before he even set foot inside the high school at University School of Milwaukee, Jonathan Crawford knew he wanted to research a disease that doesn’t have a cure. 

What You Need To Know

  • The Regeneron International Science and Engineering fair was held in Atlanta, Georgia in May

  • It's considered the largest international high school science competition, and has been around for more than 70 years

  • Jonathan Crawford, a junior at University School of Milwaukee was the only winner from Wisconsin

  • His research on possible COPD treatments was awarded a $5,000 prize

“I started looking and researching into COPD," Crawford said about the summer leading into his freshman year. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, affects more than 15 million Americans. 

More than 150,000 Americans die from the disease every year, which equates to about one death every four minutes. 

It’s a common disease, and one that affected Crawford's family. 

“My grandfather passed away a year before I was born, but as I grew up I’ve heard a lot about him, and people compare me to him, so he was a big influence for me," Crawford said. "I actually got his medical records when I started researching this project freshman year and looked at how they treated him and saw that there was a big hole in the treatment options for him, and that’s how I got into this project.”

Over the past few years, Crawford, who just finished his junior year of high school, has put in countless hours of work researching during the school year, and during the summers at National Jewish Health in Denver, Colorado. 

Through research, he found there was a possible connection with treatment for IPF — idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis — and COPD. 

“Maybe in IPF, if your your lungs, if fibroblast are a key component in IPF, maybe that’s the hidden mechanism in COPD that’s evaded doctors for a century, and they just didn’t have the perspective to look that way," Crawford said.

He compiled all of his findings and submitted his work to the regeneon international science and engineering fair. 

Potoula Stavropolous, the senior director of social impact with Regeneron said ISEF is considered the largest international high school science competition in the world. 

“We brought together more than 1,700 students to compete for prizes and to share their scientific research and meet scientific leaders and meet one another and build a community around stem," Stavropolous said. 

Crawford took home the First Category Award in “Biomedical and Health Sciences” — winning $5,000 for his research. 

“Just bing at ISEF and being able to show my work and be questioned by leading experts and see their reactions to see if this would be relevant to the field is just an awesome experience," Crawford said. 

But, he said his work is nowhere near finished, as he now has some big partners working with him.

“Going forward, I’ve partnered with National Jewish Health and University of Wisconsin-Madison to pull together their resources to try to magnify my research to have a broader impact," Crawford said. 

He said he hopes this research helps to find a cure for COPD, and keep people from dying from the disease that affected his family before he was even born.