(topic-volume-em)=

# Volume EM

Volume Electron Microscopy (vEM) includes a number of techniques for imaging large volumes of biological samples at high resolution. The OME-NGFF specification caters for this kind of big data nicely, and there are a number of resources that build upon OME-Zarr to provide additional support for vEM data.

## Tools

- [WebKnossos](https://webknossos.org/) - A web-based platform for visualizing, annotating, and sharing large-scale volumetric datasets. It has native support for OME-Zarr and is [widely used in the vEM community](https://home.webknossos.org/use-cases/volume-em).

- [VolE](https://vole.allencell.org/) - Allen Institute for Cell Science's viewer for large-scale volumetric datasets, with native support for OME-Zarr.

- [Neuroglancer](https://github.com/google/neuroglancer) - Google's WebGL-based viewer for volumetric data, with first class support for OME-Zarr.

- [SyGlass](https://www.syglass.io/science) - A proprietary virtual reality platform for visualizing and analyzing large-scale volumetric datasets, with support for OME-Zarr.

## Other

- [WebKnossos Zarr Gallery](https://zarr.webknossos.org/)- A gallery of OME-Zarr datasets, mostly vEM, hosted by WebKnossos.

- [CCP Volume EM OME-NGFF Hackathon, at EMBL-EBI, Hinxton, UK, March 2026](https://focalplane.biologists.com/2025/12/11/ccp-volume-em-ome-ngff-hackathon-2026/)

- [Chapter 14 - Toward scalable reuse of vEM data: OME-Zarr to the rescue](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/chapter/bookseries/abs/pii/S0091679X23000262) - (paywalled) book chapter describing the value of OME-Zarr for volume EM data

- [Webinar for CCP volumeEM: 'OME-Zarr: A Next Generation File Format for FAIR Bioimaging Data' with Chris Barnes](https://www.ccp-volumeem.ac.uk/showandtell/may-2026)