A 15-year-old teenager has been honored as “Kid of the Year” after creating a soap that could potentially treat and cure skin cancer.
TIME recently recognized Heman Bekele, 15, as its “Kid of the Year” for his cancer-treating soap.
According to TIME, Bekele first noticed the effect the sun had on people’s skin as a young child growing up in Ethiopia.
After immigrating to the U.S., Bekele got a chemistry set for Christmas when he was seven and learned the power of chemical reactions.
Bekele later became interested in skin cancer research and treatment. He learned about imiquimod, a drug approved to treat some forms of skin cancer. In cream form, which costs roughly $40,000, the drug can help destroy tumors.
The young boy thought soap would be the best option to make skin cancer treatment more accessible to people of different socio-economic classes.
“Almost everyone uses soap and water for cleaning. So soap would probably be the best option,” Bekele told TIME.
Bekele explained that his soap contains nanoparticles “loaded” with imiquimod, which allows the drug to stay on the skin at a “very molecular level” even when it’s washed off.
There are still many stages to go before the soap can be approved to be used for treatment. Bekele has been sponsored by Molecular biologist Vito Rebecca, and the two have been using mice to run tests for the soap.
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