A teenager has been named America’s “best young scientist” after developing a soap that could be useful in treating cutaneous melanoma, a skin cancer.
Heman Bekele, a 14-year-old high school student who lives in Annandale, Virginia, near the capital, Washington, won the top prize after beating out nine other finalists.
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“Cure cancer, one soap at a time,” he says in his entry for the 3M Young Scientist Challenge.
Screenshot X / Discovery Education
In fact, approximately 100,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with melanoma cancer each year, killing nearly 8,000 people.
“I have always been interested in biology and engineering and this challenge gave me the perfect platform to present my ideas,” he adds.
A positive progress for everyone
The soap is composed of compounds capable of reactivating dendritic cells that protect human skin, thus helping to fight cancer cells.
His idea came to him when he lived in Ethiopia until he was four years old, where he constantly saw people working under the scorching sun, according to the Washington Post.
AFP
“I wanted to turn my concept into something that was not only scientifically brilliant, but also accessible to as many people as possible,” he explains.
In a video accompanying the challenge, Bekele says he believes “young minds can have a positive impact on the world.”
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His 3M Challenge mentor, Deborah Isabelle, described the teen to the outlet as “determined to make the world a better place for people he hasn’t necessarily met yet.”
A worrying cancer
According to the American Cancer Society, skin cancer is the most common of all cancers, with melanoma accounting for only 1% but accounting for the majority of skin cancer deaths.
The rate of melanoma has increased rapidly in recent decades, particularly among women over 50, and is twenty times more common in Caucasians than in blacks.
AgenceQMI
However, melanoma mortality rates have declined over the past decade due to advances in awareness and medical treatment.
After winning the prize, young Bekele told the jury he wanted to make the soap a “symbol of hope, accessibility and a world where skin cancer treatment is at everyone’s doorstep.”