In a world where healthcare access remains uneven across Africa, innovative solutions are not just welcome: they are necessary.

Lakshmi Sujeeun, a pioneering researcher based in Mauritius, is harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and biomaterials to transform wound care. Her work focuses on designing AI-driven wound patches that could significantly reduce healing times and improve outcomes, particularly for patients in remote or underserved communities.

Lakshmi’s groundbreaking research has earned her continental recognition as she was named one of 30 recipients of the 2025 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Young Talents Sub-Saharan Africa Award, which celebrates exceptional young scientists driving scientific progress and social impact in the region. The announcement was made in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 11 December, placing her among a distinguished group of finalists recognized for their innovative contributions to science and society.

In this interview with Efosa Taiwo, she discusses her research, her vision for AI in healthcare, and her efforts to inspire the next generation of women in STEM.

Your work. It combines AI and biomaterials to accelerate wound healing. Can you describe a breakthrough moment in your research when you realized your models could reduce trial and error?

So, just to give you a background also on my research. As you said, I use AI to accelerate wound healing. In my lab in Mauritius, it’s the Center for Biomedical Research and Biomaterials, and my colleagues actually developed wound patches for specific wounds. For example, a diabetic patient that has a wound—this wound won’t heal easily; it will take months to heal. And sometimes it doesn’t heal; it gets more and more infected. So we are working on wound patches for these specific wounds. These wound patches are made from biomaterials from land resources or marine resources such as seaweed, or land resources such as sugarcane bagasse. These materials have the properties to heal this type of wound.

But when you develop and explore these materials, it requires a lot of trial and error in the lab. Afterward, you have to test them to ensure they are suitable for the body. The patch must mimic the cellular environment of the body to heal the wound effectively.

This is where I intervene. Emerging technologies like AI reduce this trial and error. In making wound patches, there are different steps. At each step, I develop a specific model to produce the desired output.

For example, the first step involves combining materials so they are miscible. Instead of trying randomly, we have a dataset from research over the past 10 years, which allows AI to predict which materials will mix well.

Then, when you test the patch on cells to see how they react, AI predicts which patch the cells attach better to, reducing experimental costs and saving time. My research accelerates the process and enables sustainable research.

How do you see your AI-driven biomaterials changing healthcare access and treatment outcomes for patients in Africa?

Oh, okay. So what we have in the lab is proof of concepts. The goal is to scale it up and bring it to the community that needs it. AI helps reduce the time from years to months to bring these solutions outside the lab. In regions of Africa where healthcare is not easily accessible, if we can reduce the burden on medical doctors with these wound patches, that would be my greatest achievement.

During your Master’s, you integrated computational modeling with hands-on lab work. How did this interdisciplinary approach influence the way you tackle complex biomedical problems today?

During my Master’s, I realized I wanted to do more computational work than lab work. I was doing 50% lab work and 50% computational work. Combining computation with lab work produces better impact and results. Being at the center of different disciplines—AI, biology, chemistry—is what I love. Science evolves this way; no single field can solve a real-world problem. Connecting disciplines allows us to address real challenges in Africa and worldwide.

Let’s talk about inspiring women in STEM. What motivates you to champion women in science, and how do you actively support young women who want to innovate in fields like AI and biomedical research?

First of all, thanks to the L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Young Talents program. They’ve given me recognition, visibility, training, and mentorship to be a role model for the next generation of scientists. I want to inspire girls, create the right spaces and ecosystems for them, be their voice, and help them enter the field of science.

Being awarded as one of this year’s young talents is a major milestone. How does this recognition validate your work, and how will it shape your future work?

Being a L’Oréal-UNESCO Young Talent laureate is a big thing. It opens opportunities for the future. I want to be an ambassador for science in my country and for the L’Oréal community. The title helps me network, communicate, and inspire young girls in Mauritius, showing them why science is so important. As the slogan says, “The world needs science, but science needs more women,” and that’s what we aim to push.

If you had unlimited resources, what ambitious step would you take to expand the use of AI in healthcare solutions in Africa?

One of my biggest dreams, I said it when I was doing the application, is that everyone has the same access to healthcare.

Regardless of where you come from.

Exactly. Healthcare is a right; it’s not something you need to be privileged for. Wherever you come from—rural regions, big cities, or remote areas—you should have the same health access that everyone has in the city. That is what I would achieve if I had unlimited resources.