David Horsfall is Head of Biomedical Research Software at the Haniffa Lab, Newcastle University, where he leads a team of Research Software Engineers focused on developing modern web applications for intuitive, interactive visualisation of single-cell and bioimaging datasets. With a background in physics, he has led engineering teams across both industry and open-source communities, with a particular emphasis on scalable data formats and web-based scientific tooling.
BioNGFF: Aligning Web Visualisation with Emerging OME-Zarr Features
February 17, 2026
Virtual
Next-Generation File Formats (NGFF) are transforming how large-scale bioimaging and single-cell data are stored, accessed, and visualised by enabling scalable, cloud-native workflows built around Zarr. This talk presents an overview of the BioNGFF initiative, focusing on OME-Zarr and its expanding ecosystem of features for modern bioimaging and spatial data.
The presentation outlines the current BioNGFF roadmap and its close alignment with emerging OME-Zarr capabilities, including coordinate transformations, single-ZIP Zarr distributions, and improved support for spatial transcriptomics. It explores how these capabilities shape the design of modern web applications and presents the Vizarr viewer roadmap as a foundation for native, browser-based exploration of high-dimensional imaging and spatial datasets. The talk highlights key technical challenges and opportunities in building performant, user-friendly visualisation tools on top of OME-Zarr.