FAIR Image Analysis: Insights from BioHackathon Europe 2024 

At this year’s BioHackathon Europe 2024 in Barcelona, a dedicated group of enthusiasts developed FAIR  image analysis workflows in the Galaxy platform. Led by Anne Fouilloux (Simula Research Laboratory) and Beatriz Serrano-Solano (Euro-BioImaging), the project aimed to enhance accessibility and standardisation in bioimage analysis, ultimately benefiting the broader scientific community. 

Enhancing Image Analysis in Galaxy 

The hackathon focused on overcoming challenges in bioimage analysis by: 

• Developing Galaxy workflows for segmentation, classification, and denoising tasks.  
• Creating Galaxy Training Network (GTN) tutorials to support user adoption.  
• Ensuring workflows are FAIR-compliant by depositing them into WorkflowHub.  
• Strengthening collaborations with the BioImage Model Zoo (BMZ) and the BioImage Archive (BIA).

Outcomes

Several developments emerged from the hackathon: 

• New and updated workflows for mitochondrial activity detection and cell segmentation.  
• Expanded Galaxy tutorials covering HeLa cell screening, OMERO-suite integration, and AI-powered image analysis.  
• A growing community with improved engagement through Galaxy’s Community Hub and enhanced connections with BMZ and BIA. 

If you are interested in these developments, read the preprint on BioHackrXiv, join the FAIR Image Data Workflows Expert Group and take a look at the community page on the Galaxy Community Hub.

Article written by Beatriz Serrano-Solano