OME-Zarr: a cloud-optimized bioimaging file format with international community support

2023/07/10 by Josh Moore, Daniela Basurto-Lozada, Sébastien Besson +76 · 11 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Engineering · #Cell Image Analysis Techniques #Genetics, Bioinformatics, and Biomedical Research #Image Processing Techniques and Applications

paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s00418-023-02209-1

openalex publication_date 2023/07/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23

Abstract

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.

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