OME-Zarr: a cloud-optimized bioimaging file format with international community support.
Josh MooreDaniela Basurto-LozadaSébastien BessonJohn A BogovicJordao BragantiniJackson M BrownJean-Marie BurelXavier Casas MorenoGustavo de MedeirosErin E DielDavid GaultSatrajit S GhoshIlan GoldYaroslav O HalchenkoMatthew HartleyDavid HorsfallMark S KellerMark KittisopikulGabor KovacsAybüke Küpcü YoldaşKoji KyodaAlbane le Tournoulx de la VillegeorgesTong LiPrisca LiberaliDominik LindnerMelissa LinkertJoel LüthiJeremy Maitlin-ShepardTrevor ManzLuca MarconatoMatthew McCormickMerlin LangeKhaled MohamedWilliam MooreNils NorlinWei OuyangBuğra ÖzdemirGiovanni PallaConstantin PapeLucas PelkmansTobias PietzschStephan PreibischMartin PreteNorman RzepkaSameeul SameeNicholas J SchaubHythem SidkyAhmet Can SolakDavid R StirlingJonathan StriebelChristian TischerDaniel M ToloudisIsaac VirshupPetr WalczyskoAlan M WatsonErin WeisbartFrances WongKevin A YamauchiOmer Ali BayraktarBeth A CiminiNils GehlenborgMuzlifah A HaniffaNathan A HotalingShuichi OnamiLoïc Alain RoyerStephan SaalfeldOliver StegleFabian Joachim TheisJason R SwedlowPublished in: Histochemistry and cell biology (2023)
A growing community is constructing a next-generation file format (NGFF) for bioimaging to overcome problems of scalability and heterogeneity. Organized by the Open Microscopy Environment (OME), individuals and institutes across diverse modalities facing these problems have designed a format specification process (OME-NGFF) to address these needs. This paper brings together a wide range of those community members to describe the cloud-optimized format itself-OME-Zarr-along with tools and data resources available today to increase FAIR access and remove barriers in the scientific process. The current momentum offers an opportunity to unify a key component of the bioimaging domain-the file format that underlies so many personal, institutional, and global data management and analysis tasks.