We know there’s a lot to worry about the younger generation, but as long as there are teens like Heman Bekele, we think the world will be just fine.
The 14-year-old high school student from Fairfax, Virginia recently developed a soap that can treat mild forms of skin cancer!
Bekele told ABC News, “People might not have the equipment or have the facilities to be able to treat this disease. A bar of soap is just so simple, so affordable, so accessible in comparison to these modern new skin cancer treatments.”
It only costs $8.50 to create a batch of the soap, which Bekele calls Skin Cancer Treating Soap, or SCTS.
When skin cancer cells develop, they weaken dendritic cells in the body which boost human immune responses and allows the cancer to take over. Bekele, who created the soap in the eighth grade, says said SCTS contains agents that could potentially reactivate dendritic cells that help eliminate the cancer cells.
"It does this as a sort of a compound-based bar of soap," he said. "It's charged with different cancer fighting chemicals. And the main one, there is this drug called imidazoquinolines."
Bekele won the title of America's Top Young Scientist and a $25,000 prize last month after his innovation won first place in the 3M Young Scientist Challenge, though the 14-year-old is now focused on his five-year plan.
Bekele hopes at the end of it to have created a nonprofit organization where he can provide equitable and accessible skin cancer treatment to as many people as possible.
When asked what motives him to attack these incredible expectations, Bekele answered, "I think I can condense that answer into one word, and it all revolves around it: It's 'impact' -- making sure the science that you're working on can have a direct impact on the world or make it a better place, in one way or another."
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