Smart microscopy workshop 13th October 2022

The Euro-BioImaging Industry Board has organized an exclusive 1-day workshop for its members and staff from the Euro-BioImaging Nodes on the subject of “Smart Microscopy” at the Imaging Centre at EMBL, Heidelberg, on Thursday13^th October 2022, which was attended by 87 on-site and online participants.

Smart microscopy connects bioimage analysis with computer-controlled microscopy to generate automated and adaptive imaging workflows to enable quantitative, statistically meaningful results in complex biological systems. This approach brings new challenges, such as accessing and controlling instrument hardware via suitable software, designing good workflows or handling of large, terabyte-sized data sets during operation.

The workshop managed to bring together leading instrument and software providers with experts from our Euro-BioImaging Nodes for fruitful discussions around research needs, technical requirements and existing solutions for Smart Microscopy.

Recordings of the Keynote lectures are available on our YouTube Channel.

The workshop participants concluded that the first steps towards standardization and making Smart Microscopy more accessible would be to 

• Build a consensus on what the field should be called and what is included
• Agree on a standard ontology for Smart Microscopy and workflow components to be used and adopted across different instrument control and analysis software and define a list of core workflow components that should be accessible in each software
• Identify the top community needs of microscope users and facilities for smart microscopy (from data format or interoperability issues to technical access requirements)

We would like to discuss this further with the community and collect YOUR input for further discussion with instrument and software producers. You can also join the Smart microscopy Working Group by contacting us - more info on all our Expert Groups here.

We are looking forward to hearing from you about your opinion on standards and best practices in this emerging field!