14-year-old boy crowned America’s top Young Scientist and awarded $25k

A 14-year-old boy was voted America’s Top Young Scientist for creating a low-cost bar of soap that heals skin cancer.

Heman Bekele, a ninth-grader at W.T. Woodson High School in Annandale, Virginia, beat out nine other competitors to win the 2023 3M Young Scientists Challenge. He won the $25,000 big prize.

Bekele created the cancer-fighting soap by infusing medicinal soap with three chemicals that have been shown to reawaken dendritic cells, which stimulate an immune response to treat cancer, according to Mail Online.

Bekele also discovered that each bar costs only $0.50, as opposed to more than $40,000 for conventional medical treatments.

Bekele aims to perfect this innovative concept and establish a nonprofit organisation to deliver this low-cost solution to impoverished communities over the next five years.

‘Skin cancer is usually common in developing countries,’ Bekele explained to Fairfax County Public Schools.

‘However, the average cost of a procedure is $40,000’.

‘I was heartbroken by the thought of people having to choose between therapy and feeding their family. There are far too many avoidable fatalities.’

The adolescent began investigating skin cancer and discovered about dendritic cells, which he claims assist protect the skin by increasing immune response.

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