2024-08-29 07:45:30
As a four-year-old, he mixed “potions” from what he found at home and once almost caused a fire. Now one of his experiments could become a breakthrough cure for skin cancer. Fifteen-year-old Heman Bekele was named Child of 2024 by Time magazine.
Bekele was interested in experiments from an early age. When he was about four years old, his family moved from his native Ethiopia to the United States so that the children could get a better education.
He has only a few memories of the capital Addis Ababa, where he lived with his parents. One of them concerns people who worked outside in the bright sun without protective equipment. Little Bekele was interested mainly because his parents told him from an early age that it was dangerous to be outside for long periods of time if he didn’t put on enough sunscreen or dress properly.
“When I was younger, I didn’t think much about it. It wasn’t until I was in the United States that I realized how big of a problem the sun and ultraviolet radiation are when you’re exposed to them for a long time,” the American magazine Time quotes the now fifteen-year-old inventor.
Prolonged exposure to the sun can cause fatal skin cancer. The United States has the largest number of patients with this disease worldwide, per capita, these cancers are most common in Australia and Denmark. Men are a more vulnerable group.
The cost of treating one person with skin cancer in the USA can reach up to 40 thousand dollars (900 thousand crowns). “When I heard these shocking statistics, it really inspired me to create a more accessible and affordable solution,” says the fifteen-year-old scientist in an interview with the American station NPR.
So Bekele took a cream that works on one type of skin cancer and figured out how to make it cheaper to make and make it available around the world. The choice fell on solid soap. “Almost everyone uses soap and water to wash,” he explains of his idea.
On the market in ten years
Last fall, he entered the young scientists competition with his idea, which he eventually won. In addition to the $25,000 prize (563,000 crowns), he also received a mentor who helped him move his research from the garage and home kitchen to a real laboratory. At the same time, she advised him what technology to use so that the medicinal substances from the cream are not washed away with the water, but remain on the skin. For this, it uses lipid-based nanoparticles that remain on the skin.
During the holidays, a high school student develops soap in the laboratories of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. There they test it on mice and in virtual models. According to their calculations, the soap should be effective against skin cancer.
Bekele’s soap does not have a smooth surface, so it also serves as a peeling. Compared to regular soaps, it is stickier and has a strong medicinal smell. The young inventor also thinks about people who do not have access to recycled bins, so the packaging will be naturally degradable.
“It’s absolutely incredible to think that one day my soap will have a direct impact on someone’s life. That’s why we started this,” he says, adding that he would like his project to be non-profit. “So that we can distribute it to the people who need it the most. To people in third countries who cannot afford expensive treatment,” he adds for the American station CNN.
However, there is still a long way to go before distribution and human testing. The product could reach the market in ten years at the earliest. “Anyone can do what I do. I just came up with an idea. I worked on it and brought it to life,” he says modestly.
Video: Aktuálně.cz series First symptoms of skin cancer (January 9, 2024)
First symptoms – skin cancer | Video: Jakub Zuzánek, Kristýna Pružinová