The bright mind Heman Bekele was named Child of the Year 2024 by TIME magazine.
As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Bekele, who was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, came up with the idea of creating a soap to treat skin cancer (SCTS). The result was a “compound-based soap bar that is infused with different types of cancer-fighting chemicals.” According to TIME, the soap contains imiquimod, a drug used to treat a form of skin cancer as well as other skin problems.
“It’s supposed to help heal the skin from the inside, which then shows results externally because the skin cancer slowly starts to disappear,” Bekele explained in 2023.
This led to him being named “America’s Top Young Scientist” that same year at the 3M Young Scientist Challenge, the nation’s premier middle school science competition created by 3M and Discovery Education.
At the age of 14, Bekele was the first black scientist to receive this honor.
“It’s incredible and definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity and something I’ll never forget. It will definitely stay with me forever, but I’m still absorbing it,” he told AFROTECH™ at the time.
TIME reports that he also received a $25,000 prize that can help him advance his research and optimize it for the market. Although it may be years before it can be sold, for now he remains committed to completing the product at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, MD.
“I am really passionate about skin cancer research, whether it is my own research or what is happening in the field,” He told TIME. “It’s absolutely incredible to think that one day my bar of soap will have a direct impact on someone else’s life. That’s why I started this in the first place.”
Herman’s research at the hospital is sponsored by Vito Rebecca, a molecular biologist and assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University, whom he first met at a Melanoma Research Alliance networking event in Washington, DC.
“I remember reading somewhere about a young guy who had an idea for a skin cancer soap,” Rebecca told TIME. “That immediately piqued my interest because I thought how cool that he wanted to share it with the world. And then, by a happy coincidence, at this Melanoma Research Alliance meeting, the CEO of the alliance introduced me to Heman. From the first conversation, his passion was obvious. When I found out he lived nearby in Virginia, I told him that if he ever wanted to stop by the lab, he was more than welcome.”
Overall, Bekele hopes that the time he invests in researching and perfecting SCTS will allow it to be used to cure cancers in their early stages, including stage 0. He also shared with AFROTECH™ that he aims to open doors to more equitable skin cancer treatments through a nonprofit organization.
“By 2028, I hope to transform SCTS, which is just a passion project right now, into more than that. I hope to transform it into a nonprofit organization where I can provide equitable and accessible skin cancer treatment to as many people as possible,” he said.
