Young teen wins top science prize for soap that can treat skin cancer

A 14-year-old boy has been named "America's top young scientist" after developing a bar of soap that could help treat melanoma. 

Heman Bekele, a ninth-grader from Virginia, won the 3M Young Scientist Challenge after pitching a bar of soap, called Skin Cancer Treating Soap (SCTS), made from compounds that could "reactivate dendritic cells that guard human skin", said The Guardian. This means they can fight cancer cells. He declared in his submission that he wanted to cure cancer "one bar of soap at a time".

Bekele moved to the US at the age of four, and his idea "came from the early years of his life in Ethiopia", said The Washington Post. He wondered how many people he'd seen working outside were "at risk of sun exposure" and his memories "fueled his decision to focus his research on skin cancer". 

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Bekele is a self-taught programmer, according to Wion, and he describes himself as "passionate about medicine, programming and making an impact".

He wanted his product to be something that was "as much of a constant in people's lives as possible" and was "most convenient and most trustworthy", he said. Creating a prototype with a combination of ingredients that could work effectively "took months of trial and error", and Bekele used "computer modeling to determine the formula". Although "similar creams and ointments exist", he doesn't believe soap has been used to fight cancers in their early stages, The Washington Post added.

Bekele hopes he can use the $25,000 prize to "refine his innovation", which costs $0.50 (40p) to make, and create a non-profit organisation "to distribute the soap to communities in need" in the next five years, said USA Today. This plan includes seeking approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said The Washington Post. Bekele added: "There is still a lot left to do."