Meet Asmi Agarwal.

I'm a Johns Hopkins Study of Exceptional Talent (SET) scholar and a Davidson Young Scholar, and a published co-author on peer-reviewed research spanning medical AI. I'm a research intern at SILO Med AI and at the Interdisciplinary Scientific AI Supercomputing Hub (ISAS) at the University of Illinois Springfield, and a Physician Pipeline Preparatory (P4) Scholar at SIU School of Medicine.

My focus is dermatology and immunology — specifically, using deep learning, mathematics, and analytical chemistry to make skin health safer and more equitable. Through DeepDermTox, a platform I'm building to detect toxic and counterfeit cosmetics, I've seen how unregulated products — including skin-lightening creams laced with mercury, hydroquinone, and hidden steroids — harm millions of people, and fall hardest on communities of color.

That's why I started this initiative: to expose the true cost of the global skin-lightening industry and build the science and awareness to counter it. My goal is a global effort that pairs rigorous research with public education — because no one should be told that their skin tone is a problem to be fixed.