A 14-year-old Virginia-based teen, who was born in Ethiopia, is being honored for his invention of soap that could potentially treat skin cancer. High school student Heman Bekele calls it Skin Cancer Treating Soap, or SCTS.
In October 2023, he was awarded the title of America's Top Young Scientist and won a $25,000 prize after his soap won first place in the 3M Young Scientist Challenge, which is an annual competition for fifth through eighth grade students. Now, Heman's invention is being recognized for its potential for future innovation.
"People might not have the equipment or have the facilities to be able to treat this disease," the teen shared with ABC News, noting that his invention could eventually be used in the early stages of skin cancer if proven effective. "A bar of soap is just so simple, so affordable, so accessible in comparison to these modern new skin cancer treatments."
Heman says that it costs only $8.50 to create a batch of 20 bars of the soap. SCTS contains agents that could potentially reactivate dendritic cells that help eliminate 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."
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According to Deborah Isabelle, Heman's mentor for the 3M Young Scientist Challenge and a product engineering specialist at 3M, it is possible that the soap will treat skin cancer. But the soap would still need to undergo typical clinical trials, which could take between five and 10 years.
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