Federation of imaging data for life sciences current status of metadata collection for high content screening, mass spectrometry imaging and light sheet microscopy of AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline and NPL

The rapid expansion of technology and computing processes are facilitating research on unprecedented scales. The multitude of proprietary file formats and data storage systems make data location and sharing difficult. Many bioimaging modalities generate terabytes of imaging data per day and pose new challenges for data analysis and management. These challenges can be partially addressed by using standardised data descriptors (metadata) to capture scientific, regulatory and business-related features of a dataset. This report is aimed to highlight the importance of metadata, to provide an insight into the different metadata types and to compare the current bioimaging annotation practices at three high profile partner sites: AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline and the National Physical Laboratory. The report is focussed on three life science imaging techniques: high-content screening, mass spectroscopy imaging, and light-sheet microscopy.