Chicago native Keven Stonewall is being heralded as one of the nation’s up and coming scientists due to his work on developing a potential vaccine for colon cancer.

Stonewall, 19, became determined to discover a cure for colon cancer after watching a friend’s uncle succumb to the disease.

“I saw the impact on him and how it impacted his life,” Stonewall told DNAinfo. “Cancer has taken over a whole bunch of lives, and I felt like I needed to step up and do something about it.”

This moment came during Stonewall’s internship at Rush University when he tested a potential colon cancer vaccine on both younger and older mice. His vaccine had a 100 percent success rate in younger mice. The vaccine, however, didn’t work in older mice.

Stonewall hopes the vaccine will one day be tested on humans.

Stonewall first fell in love with science in fifth grade after looking at cells through a microscope. Stonewall is currently a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studying biomedical engineering.

Stonewall was the top honors recipient of the 2013 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

Colon cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause death for both men and women in the U.S., according to the American Cancer Society.

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