The Open Microscopy Environment: open, integrated informatics tools for the biological sciences. (360G-Wellcome-095931_Z_11_A)

Quantitative imaging is now used to measure the dynamics of molecules in cells, the development of embryos, the progression of cancer and other diseases, and the responses of biological systems to small molecule inhibitors and drugs. The resulting data is large, complex, and difficult to access, analyse and share using conventional desktop software. Our project, the Open Microscopy Environment (OME) develops open data format specifications (OME-XML and OME-TIFF), a file translation library (Bio -Formats), and a platform for data management, analysis, visualization and sharing (OMERO). Initially built for light microscopy, we have successfully extended these tools into high content screening and electron microscopy. In this project, we will extend the coverage and utility of OME-XML, Bio-Formats, and OMERO to handle the new types of data used in bioimaging. We will add support for complex data visualization and a data publishing facility to OMERO to further promote open data shari ng. We will place developers in laboratories with specific expertise in diverse data types, image analysis, or large-scale computational analysis to ensure they are integrated into OME and available to the community. We will deliver an openly and freely available enterprise solution for image data access and management.