Heman Bekele, 14 makes Cancer beating Soap and snags Young Scientist title

Dana Malcolm 

Staff Writer 

#USA, November 10, 2023 – With a prize of $25,000 behind him and the title of America’s Top Young Scientist, Heman Bekele has shot to stardom globally for his innovative science project, a bar of soap that is touted as helpful to reversing low-grade skin cancer.

Created by consumer goods company 3M; the 3M Young Scientist Challenge for the 2023 year opened in December  2022; it invited students to ‘create an original solution to an existing problem’.

Bekele chose skin cancer and for his project created Melanoma Treating Soap (MTS).

The well-spoken 14-year-old broke down the reason he chose this particular product:

“Solutions for this disease often involve expensive treatments, such as surgery and radiation. By the end of their treatment, the average melanoma patient reported paying over $40,000 in medical bills. Due to the high expense and lack of accessibility people suffering from melanoma in Third World countries are forced to live with it, causing thousands of deaths worldwide.”

Distressed about the high disparity between melanoma survivors in some areas in Africa, (20 percent) and the US (94 percent) Bekele set out to change this trend.

“When I first heard about this issue, I was devastated about the amount of preventable deaths caused by this disease and I had to take action.”

In his audition video, dressed in a suit and tie and armed with a PowerPoint, Heman takes us through the process of understanding how skin cancer works and reverse engineering a cure.

Skin cancer harms dendritic cells which would usually help to fight against infection. The soap is made of salicylic acid, glycolic acid, and Tretinoin to reactivate those dendritic cells, helping them fight against melanoma.

Bound with other cost-effective ingredients like organic Shea Butter and raw honey, the final product costs $.50 per bar or $10 for 20 bars.

The young man hopes this affordable bar of soap will put the world one step closer to ending melanoma.