Let's Talk About It Tuesdays: 14-year-old named top young scientist for cancer-fighting soap invention
Heman Bekele, a freshman at Woodson High School in Northern Virginia, spent his summer break working to cure cancer.
W.T. Woodson High School freshman Heman Bekele moved to Virginia as a four-year-old. But he never forgot where he was born: Ethiopia.
Heman, newly crowned “America’s Top Young Scientist” after winning this year’s 3M Young Scientist Challenge, says the memories of people working long hours outside under the glaring sun in Ethiopia stayed with him as he made his way through the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) school system. A graduate of Wakefield Forest Elementary School and Frost Middle School, Heman was struck by the dramatic differences in skin cancer survival rates in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa compared to places where high tech cancer treatments are available.
“Skin cancer is mostly found on people who live within developing countries,” Heman says. “But the average price for an operation is $40,000. I was devastated by the idea of people having to choose between treatment and putting food on the table for their families. There are so many preventable deaths.”
He was determined to find a better way. So Heman researched skin cancer, learning about dendritic cells, which he says help protect skin by boosting immune response. Then he spent months playing with salicylic acid, glycolic acid and tretinoin, trying to find the right combination to help treat skin cancer. He developed SCTS, which stands for skin cancer treating soap, and works by reactivating dendritic cells.
