A 14-year-old teenager was named "America's Top Young Scientist" after winning this year's 3M Young Scientist Challenge, a national science competition. He was given the title for creating a bar of soap（肥皂） that fights low-grade skin cancer and also awarded $25,000 for his research.
Heman Bekele, who is a freshman at WT Woodson High School, moved to Virginia from Ethiopia, where he observed people constantly exposed to the sun and suffering from skin cancer. While he didn't initially give it much thought, as the competition drew near,he remembered his experiences in Ethiopia and decided to focus his research on skin cancer.
Heman started doing experiments at home and doing testing on digital models. He learned much about dendritic cells （named for their tree-like branches）, which boost human immune（免疫的） responses. In his submission video to 3M, Heman explains, "When skin cancer cells develop, they weaken dendritic cells in the body, allowing the cancer to takeover." He said the soap contains agents that could potentially reactivate dendritic cells that help eliminate the cancer cells.
The soap can be applied to the skin every couple of days and then the person with skin cancer will start to see progress. "The average price of skin cancer treatment in the US alone is almost $40,000, but my bar of soap only costs $8.50 to create, and it can have the same effects as something that people would pay thousands and thousands of dollars to try to get," Heman said.
For now, Heman said he has a five-year plan. At the end of it, he hopes to have created a nonprofit organization where he can provide accessible skin cancer treatment to as many people as possible. But to achieve his goal, he would have to get his treatment through clinical trials and have it certified by the Food and Drug Administration （FDA）, he said.