Meet Claire Jiang, the 18-year-old New Jersey student diagnosed with juvenile arthritis at 9 who built a lab model of the disease; her research won $70,000

Claire Jiang, an 18-year-old senior at Bergen County Academies in Hackensack, New Jersey, has received a $70,000 award after placing seventh in the 2026 Regeneron Science Talent Search. Her research focused on developing a laboratory cell model that could help scientists study juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), the most common form of arthritis affecting children.

Jiang's interest in the disease is connected to her own experience. She was diagnosed with JIA at the age of 9 after developing a fever, swollen joints and difficulty moving her elbow during a classroom exam in third grade. Her experience with the condition later led her to investigate the challenges researchers face when studying JIA and developing treatments for young patients.

Turning personal experience into research

Jiang became interested in JIA research while still in middle school. By seventh grade, she had begun thinking about how scientific research could contribute to a better understanding of the disease and potentially improve treatment options.


One challenge is the limited availability of convenient laboratory models that accurately reproduce the cellular characteristics of JIA. Jiang therefore focused her project on developing a model that could provide researchers with a more accessible way to study the disease in laboratory conditions.

Her research centered on fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS), specialized cells that line the joints. These cells have an important role in inflammation and joint damage associated with arthritis.

How the model was developed

Jiang used SW982, a human cell line commonly used in laboratory studies of adult rheumatoid arthritis. She treated the cells with bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4), a signaling protein associated with joint damage in children with JIA.

Her experiments showed that exposure to BMP4 altered the behavior of the SW982 cells. Their growth patterns and gene expression began to resemble characteristics observed in FLS from JIA-affected synovial tissue.

According to the Society for Science's official project profile, the treated cells demonstrated similarities to JIA FLS in both their growth behavior and gene expression. These findings formed the basis of Jiang's proposed laboratory model.

The model could potentially give researchers another way to investigate the cellular mechanisms involved in JIA. It may also allow scientists to study potential treatments and biological pathways without relying entirely on limited tissue samples from children with the disease.

Research alongside a demanding schedule

Jiang conducted much of her work in her school laboratory during lunch breaks and weekends while continuing her regular academic responsibilities. She described spending long hours analyzing the data generated by her experiments.

"I never pull all-nighters, but I definitely was [going to sleep] later and later trying to figure out and analyze this data," Jiang told Science News Explores.

Her research ultimately earned her seventh place in the 2026 Regeneron Science Talent Search, which is organized by the Society for Science. The competition, established in 1942, is one of the longest-running and most prominent science and mathematics competitions for high school students in the United States.

Nearly 2,000 students entered the 2026 competition, with finalists evaluated on the quality of their research, independent problem-solving skills and potential for future scientific leadership.

Beyond the laboratory

Jiang has also pursued several activities outside scientific research. She studies piano through the Manhattan School of Music precollege program, serves as the head delegate of her school's Model United Nations team and volunteers as an intern in a pediatric intensive care unit.

Her JIA research, however, remains closely connected to her personal experience with the condition. Jiang has said that she hopes her work will contribute to a better understanding of childhood chronic illnesses and support the development of more targeted treatments.

She also believes that scientific research has helped her become more comfortable discussing her own diagnosis.

"Adding to the scientific knowledge about an illness that affects her personally is honestly one of the greatest accomplishments I could ever have imagined," Jiang told Science News Explores.

Jiang's research does not represent a new treatment for JIA, and further studies would be needed to establish how effectively the model can reproduce the disease and how useful it may be for drug research. However, her work provides an example of how a personal experience with a chronic childhood illness can lead to a focused scientific investigation with potential value for future research.