As a bioinformatics engineer at Institut Pasteur’s Bioinformatics Hub, I design analysis methods to extract sequences of known or novel pathogens from metagenomic sequencing data of animal or clinical samples. My work involves evaluating existing methods based on local alignment or k-mer approaches, and determining the best combinations of analyses in collaboration with biologists who provide the samples. This work is critical in a context of pandemic or rapid diagnosis, as it allows for the referencing of more and more pathogen sequences and the identification of new pathogen/disease combinations. The main challenge lies in the detection of viral sequences, which evolve more rapidly than those of other pathogens and for which our knowledge is still limited. I hold a PhD in bioinformatics, which focused on the detection of topological patterns in phylogenetic trees. I then contributed to the Bio++ library and worked on the implementation of fast likelihood calculations in a program for reconciling phylogenetic trees. Since joining the Bioinformatics Hub in 2016, I have participated in various projects related to sequence homology analysis, including alignment, creation of homologous sequence databases, HMM profiles, and k-mer signatures. As a developer (Python/C++), I am particularly interested in optimizing laboratory prototypes and creating user-friendly tools for non-specialized users.