Genomic authentication and medicinal biodiversity. Medicinal plants of West Africa represent a therapeutic heritage that remains largely undocumented at the molecular level. We develop omics approaches (genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics) to authenticate, characterise and map the genetic diversity of Senegalese medicinal species. The goal is to build a reference data infrastructure that does not yet exist for West African flora.

Traditional knowledge and data sovereignty. The knowledge that practitioner communities hold about their plants precedes and complements molecular characterisation. We work to integrate this knowledge into omics pipelines: documenting it with the communities concerned, connecting it to genomic data, and developing governance frameworks to protect it.

Bioinformatics infrastructure and training. Omics data production in Africa cannot durably depend on analytical capacity located elsewhere. We are building an integrated pipeline (field, wet laboratory, high-performance computing) through which students of the Licence and Master programme in Molecular Genetics and Bioinformatics at the Université Numérique Cheikh Hamidou Kane (UN-CHK) are trained through practice, contributing directly to the scientific output of the laboratory.