Working Group 1
Quality Assessment and Reproducibility for Instruments & Images in Light Microscopy
The Consortium for Quality Assessment and Reproducibility for Instruments and Images in Light Microscopy (QUAREP-LiMi), formed by the global community of practitioners, researchers, developers, service providers, funders, publishers, policy makers and industry related to the use of light microscopy, is committed to democratizing access to quantitative and reproducible light microscopy and the data generated by it.
Our mission is to provide a comprehensive set of community-agreed guidelines, protocols, automation procedures and other resources aimed at improving quality control, quality assurance, and instrument/method calibration. The stakeholders advocate for the use of the highest level of reproducibility for data generated by light microscopy methods in scientific research and biotechnology applications. In support of achieving its mission, QUAREP-LiMi:
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sanctions Working Groups to form teams that focus on specific technical or outreach topics;
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maintains, disseminates, and teaches best practices, protocols, and software tools; and
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collaborates with providers of reference materials or instrumentation or other tools that enable the easy implementation of best practices at the community level.
We came together in our first online Web meeting on the 28th of April, 2020, with about 50 attendees. By now (24st of April 2024), the network has grown to 620 people from 41 countries worldwide. We have members from academia (research labs, core facilities), national microscopy communities, companies involved in the microscopy business, organizations or institutions related to standardization on a national or international level, and scientific publishers and observers from funding agencies (see the graph below and on the member page for an overview).
Ten working groups (WGs) were established in the 2nd General Meeting on the 9th of July 2020 to bring our common aims quickly forward. Our web page gives an overview of QUAREP-LiMi’s work. In the 3rd General Meeting, WG 11 “Microscopy Publication Standards” and later WGs 12 “Image Visualization and Analysis” and 13 “Phototoxicity” were established. WG 14 “Environment” and 15 “FLIM” are in the process of being established, and WG 8 is restructured to work on “Education, Training and Outreach”.
QUAREP-LiMi operates a NextCloud and an OMERO server, serving as a centralized repository and exchange point for our collective work. These platforms facilitate collaboration and data sharing among our members.
QUAREP-LiMi is absolutely open to new members, and we are looking forward to your contribution. If you are interested in joining our initiative, please fill out our membership form. Use our form for changing your working group (WG) or joining a new WG. For any further questions, please contact us.
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Working Group 2
12th meeting, 11th of October 2021
Meeting summary
One of the main topics of our meeting was to prepare for the joint meeting with WG7 on establishing standardized vocabulary for describing cameras. The idea for this meeting is to bring together camera manufacturers, microscope companies, and users to agree upon the vocabulary.
In addition, we have to test and finalize both, our measurement and the analysis protocols, by generating more data for determination of the photo-conversion factor (PCF) and background. For that we agreed to use a de-focused Chroma slide edge as main test sample for now.
Last, we discussed how to get more members actively involved and keep the active ones motivated.
11th meeting, 13th of September 2021
Meeting summary
This was the first meeting after the summer break. Therefore we mainly did a status update of the current standing of WG2 and our 4 subgroups (area detector, point detector, analysis, test samples). Mainly, first data sets were collected using the first versions of our measurement protocols. Also, we have a first version of a stand-alone analysis program for retrieving of the photon-conversion factor and dark noise contribution. We discussed the documentation and organization of the data and meta data collected, how to improve it, and how to interact with the MetaDataApp.
Working Group 3
Working Group 4
19th meeting, 20th of September 2022
Meeting date
20/09/2022 @ 5:00 PM (CET/CEST)
Meeting summary
Discuss the transition of the protocol to protocols.io. Members of WG4 are invited to put comments to keep developing the protocol for WG4 via protocols.io. Discussion on data/metadata management and the use of a microscopy image database (e.g. OMERO) in the future to progress faster. Discussion on data analysis strategies and sharing the results with AirTable and/or spreadsheets.
Working Group 5
Working Group 6
6th meeting, 8th of September
Meeting summary
Meeting continued to focus on details of the measuring protocol proposed. Discussion on test targets, beads vs slide etching etc. A stronger call to action to add to the protocol, make suggestions is needed. An excel worksheet should be instituted to list up all major changes to the protocol, who proposed, suggested changes, supporting documentation etc. This excel document should be used to review / accept the changes and produce a modified clean copy to circulate to WG chairs for comment.