A 14-year-old boy won the 3M young scientist lab competition, the grand prize of $25,000, and was named their 2023 top young scientist. He is named Heman Bekele and he is a ninth grader Woodson High School in Fairfax County. Bekele was born in Ethiopia, and at the age of 4, moved to the U.S.

Heman won this competition for his amazing creation of a bar of soap that can fight skin cancer. The way it works is that it is a compound bar of soap. It is charged with chemicals that fight cancer, for example Imidazole Quinolines. This soap is very affordable, different that normal skin cancer treatment which usually costs about $40,000, so many more people will be able to get treated.

Heman now needs FDA(Food and Drug Administration) approval and a patent. He wants to commercialize the soap and hopes to have it on the market by 2025. His plan is to, by 2028, turn it into a nonprofit organization so he can provide this skin cancer treatment to as many people as possible.

Related Stories

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/14-year-old-invents-cancer-fighting-soap

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/10/27/1209048618/q-a-this-scientist-developed-a-soap-that-could-help-fight-skin-cancer-hes-14#:~:text=MTS%20%5BMelanoma%20Treating%20Soap%5D%20is,being%20this%20agent%20called%20Imidazoquinoline.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2023/10/20/14-year-old-wins-3m-young-scientist-challenge-for-developing-skin-cancertreating-soap

https://kffhealthnews.org/morning-breakout/14-year-old-invents-soap-to-treat-skin-cancer-wins-top-young-scientist-prize/

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/virginia-14-year-old-named-top-young-scientist-for-cancer-fighting-soap-invention/3443795/

https://www.bscnursing2022.com/skin-cancer-treatment-soap/

Take Action

Find Other Young Scientists Who Competed In The 3M Young Scientist Competition