Towards Open and Standardised Imaging Data: An Introduction to Bio-Formats, OME-TIFF, and OME-Zarr

When: May 28, 2025, 15:30 – 16:30 (CEST)

As part of the STANDFLOW project, EMBL-EBI is hosting a series of webinars focused on the management and sharing of bioimaging and other multimodal data. The project connects cutting-edge imaging technologies with -omics approaches and utilizes complex datasets from research expeditions such as TREC (Traversing European Coastlines). Its goal is to support the implementation of standardized data flows in the emerging field of planetary biology.

While some webinars address challenges specific to environmental and marine biology research, several offer practical insights applicable to a broader research audience – particularly those working with imaging or other complex data types. All webinars are recorded and will be made available for on-demand viewing.

This webinar focuses on open technologies developed by the Open Microscopy Environment (OME) initiative, addressing the challenges of proprietary formats and metadata fragmentation in microscopy data. Participants will be introduced to the Bio-Formats library, which enables reading and conversion of dozens of formats, the OME-TIFF standard for long-term storage of data and metadata, and OME-Zarr – a format optimized for scalable, cloud-based processing. The session explains how these open standards enable efficient and interoperable management of multidimensional imaging data in line with the FAIR principles.

Register and learn more here.

About EMBL-EBI

The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) is a leading international research organization in biology and biomedicine. It includes the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), based in the UK, which provides freely accessible bioinformatics resources and coordinates a range of international initiatives promoting FAIR and open access to scientific data. EMBL-EBI is also a key partner of ELIXIR, the European infrastructure that connects national bioinformatics centres and supports data sharing, tools, and training across Europe. EMBL-EBI’s training programmes are part of the ELIXIR Training Platform, which strengthens national training efforts and fosters the development of a sustainable infrastructure for data science and bioinformatics.